The Lucky Streak Continues

Within the past few months I have been on a red hot lucky streak. First I won a Nintendo Wii at a work convention (though I'm not really a gamer and have only used it once), then a copy of Dean Karnaze's new book (which I've nearly finished reading). Today I got an email from Ed at Trail Running Soul to let me know that I'd won the audiobook version of the same Karnaze book. Great stuff - I've been meaning to experiment running with an audiobook on my ipod for a while. Now I have no excuse.

A few months ago I tried out a new brand of road shoes - the Asics GT-2120 - and I loved them. They replaced my beloved Reeboks that didn't seem to work for me anymore. The only problem is that they are last year's model and have been replaced by the GT-2130. Now, the new model is very similar, but costs around $90 whereas I got the pair of 2120s for around $50 (if you know me, you know I don't like to pay full price for anything). I could have kicked myself for not buying another pair at the time, especially since I now have nearly 300 miles on these and will soon need more. I've been trying to find some online in my size (9, 4E wide) and at a good price for a while now, all to no avail. Well, this morning my lucky streak saved me as I think I found the last place on the internet that carried them in my size, along with an extra 20% off coupon which netted me two pairs of one of the best running shoes of the last few years for $104 shipped. How lucky is that?

And my new thinkpad arrived last night (which is what I'm typing this on). I pulled the hard drive out of the ancient laptop, popped it into here and installed linux on it. The machine is in perfect shape and does everything I need it to, so I'm happy - I got a great deal. Even more happy when I was able to fix the heat problem on the other laptop by simply removing the battery (which was old and didn't hold a charge anyway). That means I now have two working laptops that run really well. No more Mrs Welshrunner throwing me off to check her email!!!

To top it all off, here's a clear sign of Fall coming (other than the spectacular blood red sunrise this morning). I went to HEB this afternoon and discovered they have my favorite beer in stock again - Buffalo Bill's Pumpkin Ale. They have it each year in the run up to Halloween and it's super yummy beer - like drinking pumpkin pie. My perfect Fall meal is a nice warming soup with homemade Italian bread washed down with some of this stuff - wonderful. If you live anywhere they sell it, you've gotta try it.