Yes, everyone's favorite fast food joint (yes, it is after all fast food) is having another free deal for Valentine's Day, just like they had last year. You know the drill, but in case you're don't, here's the info:

- Buy a Chipotle gift card (min $5) between 1/31 & 2/11.
- Bring back receipt from gift card purchase between 2/12 & 2/14 and score a free burrito.

Not that complicated, right? But somehow whenever I explain it aloud to people, they always seem to get confused. I should just tell them to read my blog.

And in case you don't believe me or are still confused, go here for the actual advertisement from Chipotle.

And for those of you whose Chipotle love cannot be quenched by merely buying burritos, you can now own a piece of Chipotle! Their stock went on sale on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) last week and has more than doubled already from it's $22 opening price per share, to a close today at $44.80 a share (ticker symbol: CMG). I'm not usually one to give stock advice, but I'd stay away from this one for a few months and see where it settles out at. Usually the first few weeks after an Initial Public Offering (IPO) are pretty rocky. And yes, even though they are now a publicly traded company, McDonald's is still their main shareholder.

This week's photo was taken on Saturday night at the Hyatt in the Old Arcade in downtown Cleveland. I was there with Kristy, attending her company's big annual party. This is the first time they had it at the Hyatt, and I thought it was pretty nice. The architecture in that building makes it one of my favorite places in town, though I had not been there since I was much younger. All in all it was a pretty fun evening.

Well, my cable modem from Alltel arrived yesterday and I was able to set it up within 20 minutes and rejoin the high-speed community. It's good to be back. I can now once again download music, listen to streaming radio, and sit anywhere I want in my apartment without fear of dropping my connection. I was also able to get back online with Xbox Live and get out my aggression with a few bloody games of Halo 2. I also took literally 2 minutes to secure my wireless signal which it seems like 90% of people fail to do. So attention non-nerdy reader, you router may offer the best security in the universe, but if you don't turn it on, it's useless.

I also remembered that I failed to mention the fact that last Friday I registered for the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon, which I plan to run on May 7th (in case you don't understand the name, it has to do with the old expression "when pigs fly"). I'm already in the second week of my training program and feel confident that I'll be able to cross that finish line in under 4 hours this time, which is my goal. The training program is much tougher this time around, but I think it is really going to help me improve my speed and endurance.

- I'm very disappointed in the rumored trade by the Cleveland Indians of young star Coco Crisp to the Boston Red Sox. It will leave the Indians with one quality outfielder (Grady Sizemore) and seems to suggest that we are still "building for the future" instead of trying to win right now. It's becoming painfully clear that owner Larry Dolan is not willing to put up the money to put a winning team on the field.

I actually took a number of photos this week, but this was my favorite. It was taken during my Friday afternoon run in the park. This is the view from the bridge over the Cuyahoga River in Peninsula, OH. The bridge is part of the towpath trail in the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area (CVNRA), which is where I do most of my running. The river was pretty full from a lot of the melted snow from the previous days, as the temperature was in the upper 50's at the time of this photo. I have a couple other photos of this area in my flickr account, including a picture of the bridge where I took this photo.

Yes, the rollercoaster that has become our Cleveland winter is back at it today. After peaking out near 60 degrees yesterday, I woke up to snow falling. I'm afraid to go outside in fears that my body may spontaneously combust after experiencing all of this rapid temperature changes over the past couple of weeks. I think I'll just stay inside today and wait for the UPS man to bring my cable modem so I can hook up my DSL connection. I might brave the weather later to check out some DJs in lovely Akron at The Lime Spider.

For once, I was able to take advantage of the awesome weather yesterday. I was in training class at work the later half of this week, and we wrapped up early which allowed me to escape while there was still a fair amount of daylight to be had. Fortunately I came prepared, and headed straight for the park to go get my run on. And run I did...10 miles! That's the most I have done in a while, and I felt great. I think my body was just happy to be running outdoors again and did not protest to anything I asked of it. I was rewarded by Kristy with some very tasty homemade chicken and tomato pizza. It was a good day.

There are a few insignificant milestones that have occured over the past week or so that are worth a brief mention:

- Been at the new job for 4 months, wondering when it is proper to drop the "new" prefix.
- Been living on my own for just over a month, and have yet to oversleep, grab fast food instead of cooking, or clean the toilets.
- This blog has seen it's 5,000th visitor, and now has over 160 posts. Thanks for reading!
- I have started my 16-week training program for my next marathon (which you can follow along here).
- My friend Josh has finally admitted that Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger (a fellow Miami University graduate) "played well" during a game.

Another thing worth noting, that I am a little bittersweet about, is that I finally broke down and ordered DSL service today. Yes, I'm super excited that I'm finally going to have a fast, reliable internet connection like I had been used to prior to moving. But on the other hand, I have to pay through the nose for it. In addition to the $35 for the service, I also had to signup for phone service, which in it's most basic form is still over $30! Looks like I'll be dining on a few more bread and water dinners over the next few months.

Yes, my second photo entry of the new year is fairly unexciting. I promise to keep the Oscar pictures to a minimum. I just couldn't resist posting this one of our year old cat who has quickly grown into quite a beast, thus earning the nickname of "Moosey". And this picture shows very clearly why that is. Oh, the life of a cat. Eat, poop, and find something comfortable to lay on and sleep. I could live with doing that.

I was asking myself that question this week, especially yesterday when the temperatures here hit 60! That is unheard for Cleveland this time of year. But alas, I woke up this morning to see a winter wonderland outside. That's right, a mere handful of hours after seeing the thermometer hit 60, we are now blanketed in a few inches of snow. We had barely seen any snow since before Christmas, but it made it's return today, just in time for the weekend. So yeah, 60 degrees on a Friday doesn't do me much good when I'm working all day. It couldn't just wait another day to happen, or at least carry over just one more day?

The cold weather does get me in the mood to watch more videos, which I have been doing lately. Watched 'Wedding Crashers' last night, which was pretty funny, though it really trailed off and dragged along during the second hour. And I know it's a "feel good comedy", but does the ending really need to be so cheesy? I also watched the Tim Burton remake of 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' which was pretty entertaining. I read the book when I was young, so I hardly remembered it, and never bothered seeing the original movie, so I didn't have any set expectations. It is a very strange movie and I'm not sure it is something I would want my kids to see (if I had any). Willy Wonka, played by Tim Burton, is just so bizarre. And the movie has a very creepy vibe to it.

So I just returned from a late-night trip to the grocery store. I was busy all evening but I needed some stuff for tomorrow, so I headed out to the store around 10:30. I actually enjoy shopping so late as the store is near empty and there are no shopping cart traffic jams or throngs of people crowding around one area. What there is though are the freaks and geeks of the population.

I noticed that my fellow shoppers were pretty much what one would expect to see shopping at that time of day. They don't look like they get out much, not very sociable and sometimes seemingly not very clean. But as I was noticing this, something in my head said "Hey, guess what? You're here shopping right now too". And that was true. I was amongst these people. I'm no different than them (though I do try to shower regularly). These are my people! This is my crowd. This is my future. Hell, this is my present. And I have nothing wrong with that.

As an unrelated side-note, I am in the midst of watching Aqua Teen Hunger Force, volume 4 on DVD, and it is some of the funniest stuff ever put on TV. It's totally some of the lowest denominator humor out there, but there is almost nothing else out there that can make me laugh out loud like this stuff can. Worth a rental if you've never seen it before and enjoy low-brow animated humor, like myself.

Currently hanging out at my parents house, enjoying a good internet connection and some cable tv. MTV is currently showing a marathon of 'True Life', the documentary show that I'm a big fan of. Just finished watching the one about people with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). It was pretty crazy. I couldn't imagine going through that myself or seeing someone I know going through that. These people had all sorts of crazy rituals that seemed to occupy every minute of every day of their life. Currently checking out the episode on jealousy, which is over the top. The girls on here are psychotic.

I also saw an ad for some new show following the life of this loser who used to be lead singer of the MTV-created boy band O-Town. The dude's name is Ashley Parker Angel. With a name like that, I wonder if there is more we should know about him besides him just looking like a girl. Sounds like he has had quite the fall from grace, as he went from the rich life in L.A. to living on his girlfriend's mother's couch. Ouch. He claims he didn't frivolously waste away all of his money, just that there never was much. Oh...ok. Now I feel bad for you...

Here is my first attempt at a weekly photograph post, one of my new year's resolutions. I didn't feel very creative, so I took a picture of someone else's creativity. This is a big art piece that is right at the entrance of where I work. I've always thought it was pretty cool. One of the literally hundreds of works of art on display at work. Makes it a more fun place to work.

Wow, 3 posts in 3 days? I must be serious about that resolution to blog more! Hopefully I won't quit like all of those newfound fitness enthusiasts that are crowding the fitness center at work. Speaking of resolutions, I took a step towards achieving one of them today by signing up for my first library card in many years. I stopped up at the very nice library here in Twinsburg, got my card, and picked up a few books. Sure, that doesn't mean I'm actually going to read them, but it's a step in the right direction.

- Heard a remembrance on NPR this evening for Frank Wilkinson, a civil rights activist in the 1950s "Red Scare" era who was jailed for refusing to answer whether or not he was a member of the Communist Party. Hard to believe that was actually our country only 50 years ago. I wonder if 50 years from now we'll look back at current times as to when we lost a lot of our personal freedoms and privacy via the Patriot Act and similar governmental actions in the name of preventing terrorism.

Yes, I've gone and done it again. I've created yet another blog to write in. The new blog is 'Brad Runs', which is more of a running journal than anything else, as I start to ramp up my training for my next marathon. I created it since I know most of my readers could care less about how many miles I run here and there. But for the one or two of you that do, you're more than welcome to check out the new blog and follow my progress, or lack thereof.

Now that the holiday season is finally over, I realize that the only thing I miss about it is the decrease in rush-hour traffic. It seems like now everyone has finally made it back to work, so my commute this morning was the usual stop-and-stop-and-go that I had so missed over the past 2 weeks. Oh well, I guess that is my motivation to try to keep up a little earlier to try to beat the rush (though that argument carries little weight when debating whether to get up or roll over at 6:30 in the morning).

I finally managed to dust off my Netflix envelopes and watch a movie this weekend. I watched Spielberg's remake of 'War of the Worlds', which I actually enjoyed despite my dislike of star Tom Cruise. I would have liked to have seen the story told on a more macro scale (like the TV & radio reports seen in 'Signs') instead of just following around Cruise's character and his children.
I feel like the story loses some of it's impact if you just look at a tiny sliver of the bigger picture. But the idea behind the movie was good and Spielberg pulled it off pretty well, though the ending was super weak. I hate it when a bad ending ruins or almost ruins a movie for me. Worth a rental in my opinion.

It's not typical for me to actually write down new year's resolutions even though I always come up with them. Usually I get really excited about working on resolutions and remember them for a couple of weeks before they quickly fade into the past. But this year I'm recording them and putting them out there for all to see, so I at least have the motivation of trying not to fail in front of all of my readers.

It's not a big list and nothing is really much of a "stretch" goal. Just a few things to aim for in the coming months of 2006:

- Run 2 marathons.
- Run 1,000 miles for the year.
- Visit, on vacation, at least one new city outside of Ohio.
- See a game at a baseball stadium I have never been to.
- Go to more concerts.
- Blog more often!
- Read 12 (non-computer) books.
- Learn to cook "a few simple things", and a few "not-so-simple things".
- Go bike riding at least once a week when the weather is decent.
- Lose 10 pounds (you knew I had to have that obligatory one).
- Take a picture and post it online once a week.
- Be more patient.
- Be happy.

See, nothing too difficult. And besides the last two, all very concrete goals. Easily achievable.