Lane's Ramblings

How often has this happened? "I have a busy day tomorrow..." or "I've been sick all week..." or "I have a marathon on Sunday..." and they all end with "...so I'm not going to stay out late tonight" or "...so I'm only going to have one or two." Next thing you know you're walking in your apartment at 2 in the morning. That's what happened last night.

I didn't drink too much but staying out that late definitely didn't help my sleep situation, which I needed plenty of since I had been sick all week (still am a little) and because I have a marathon tomorrow. I picked the place that we went to, I don't get to play pool here very often here because there aren't too many places that have tables and when they do they're crap so we went to a real live pool hall. A lot of people ask me what I miss from the States and my answer is usually 'nothing' because I have everything that I need but now I think my answer might be pool.

First of all - they play on snooker tables, they're enormous (a 10 footer is 3/4 size) and the pockets are small and have rounded corners (you'd think that this wouldn't be too bad but it's horrible). If you're off by just a tad on a straight shot it is not going in and then will bounce off the rounded corner and end up on the other side of the table.

Second - the cues are very light, short, and the tip is about half the size of a normal cue. You know how everyone that owns a table has that one cheap cue that you only use when you're up against the wall? Yeah, that's all they have.

Third - the balls are smaller and coupled with the small cues it's tough to get a good strike on the ball or control the spin.

But if I keep playing on these tables then I should be able to hit a straight shot from 12 feet... if an opportunity to do that ever comes up again.

So we had some fun trying to push the balls around the table, played some horribly long games of 8 ball, and then headed home around 2 am. Today I'm just going to rest up for tomorrow, try to get to a running store, and maybe head into the city to grab some coffee and food. I'm looking to run 8 minute miles consistently tomorrow - this isn't a race that I'm going all out on, it's practice for October's race. I haven't run for a week because I've been sick so it should be interesting and let's hope that my ankles hold up. Full on marathon training starts on Monday.

To answer Hober's question from two posts ago - Jill (4 years old) is my sister Joanne's kid and Riley (0 years old) is my cousin Jamie's newborn.

What's with the rain up in Boston forcing two doubleheaders for the Sox in one week? It was nice to see the Sox take down the Tigers this week though. I told you Tavarez was going to come out with a good game. And how about Hinske coming out in the second game on Thursday? Diving game and a jack. Getting it done. Go Sox!