This and That

• I like the bulleted format, but apparently, with this particular blog template, I get little flowers as my bullet points. Lovely. Perhaps there is a way to change this (without changing the template). If anyone out there in blogland knows how, please enlighten me.
• Back to school shopping done this am with the 4 kids. *shudder* It wasn't that bad, despite long lists for all classrooms. We decided to spend more money by avoiding WalMart and going to Staples instead. I think there is a price to pay for peace of mind, and certainly avoiding WalMart during BTS frenzy is good for peace of mind. First grade requires a LOT of glue sticks (12). Sounds like it'll be a sticky year. 7th grade requires a scientific calculator. My confidence at helping my kids with their math homework is waning with each subsequent year. I remember when back-to-school meant Trapper Keeper notebooks (with those annoying plastic hitch 3-ring "binders") and PeeChee folders. Just looking at a Pee Chee folder makes me feel like I'm in 5th grade again.
  
• The last two days seemed like Fall. We had a TON of rain, cooler weather. It was kind of fun to have the rain, but I'm definitely not ready for Summer to be over (despite the fact that it is practically over). It's nicer today, sunny, warm, blue skies.
• The Hood to Coast relay is this weekend (starts today). This is the third year I've not been on a team and I really really miss it. Maybe next year. Please please please. It is such a kick!
• NBC has been getting some flack about their Olympic coverage, but I have to say the on-line experience has been amazing. I've watched Mens and Women's Triathlon, the 10K Marathon swim (mens and womens), and other events live, on-line (for free) and the feed and commentary has been great. I've been impressed.
• Politics: Aarugghh! I think I'm burnt out on politics and am going to make a deliberate effort to not get riled up anymore by the constant stream of commentary, opinion, polls, debate. In the end, I think we get the government we deserve. I get most frustrated that the people who are greatest affected by economic downturn and national fear-mongering are the ones who also tend to be the most apathetic or ignorant (or reactionary) when it comes to electing leaders. I tend to vote progressively (now that "liberal" is a bad word, one has to use the word "progressive") because of my conscience and religious beliefs, but frankly, as a well-educated, high-earning, white guy, when things don't go the way I hope, it just ends up being better for me (economically, anyway). My hope is that come November, things will be looking worse for me but better for most of the country.
• I hope to start running again this weekend. It's been 6 weeks tomorrow since I've ran - the longest break from running I've had in the last 5+ years. My weight has gone up, my attitude towards exercising has gotten worse, and it's time to reverse this trend.
• I met the cops at the clinic last night. The alarm had tripped. I'm still not sure what happened, but we made a quick walk-through the building, and things seemed ok. My hunch is, that if someone did get inside (probably from an improperly closed patio door), they ran out as soon as the alarm went off. Or it was simply a false alarm, but that really doesn't seem to happen. I had the alarm set once on me by janitors who were leaving and didn't know I was in my office (and I guess I had music on or something and didn't realize the alarm was set). As soon as I stepped into the hallway (there are motion detectors throughout the office) the alarm went off. It is LOUD, and scared the crap out of me. It's nice that the new police station was built 1.5 miles from our office, on the same street. When I got to the office there were two police cruisers there and two officers who went around with me.
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