Even in Kyoto

True to form, I have not been updating recently because I have been involved in too many shenanigans. Yesterday morning, I ran 18 miles. Yes, that's eighteen miles. I amaze myself. On rare occasions. The whole only took 2 minutes longer than the 16-mile run I completed two weeks ago. There are some good explanations for that--better sleep is most likely primary among them.

I felt pretty gimpy when I finished, but not bad overall. Then I ate a bunch of Thanksgiving leftovers and took a nap. I was supposed to play kickball later in the afternoon, but not enough people showed up, so I ended up going to Caffe Boa with K and her sister and then went to sleep.

Okay, maybe I haven't really been up to that many shenanigans.

This morning I biked over to the ceramics studio to check on the dung beetle that I have been working on and to add another layer of glaze to it. However, it looked freaking awesome, so I think I'm leaving it as is and will post pictures soon.

Since I've spent most of the holiday discussing my newly-created list of Valley coffeeshops to visit, I decided to act on the list, so I'm presently sitting in Gold Bar Espresso, a coffeeshop that's surprisingly close to a Starbucks and the Xtreme Bean. I guess that just suggests that this is a wee pocket of culture in a generally culture-dead city. From what people have said, it appears that Gold Bar used to occupy the Xtreme Bean's location and moved to this new spot for some unknown reason. The new location seems a bit less prominent, although it's closer to a grocery store, so it may receive more business here. The funny part is that Gold Bar's old location was a bank, making the name appropriate, whereas the new location most definitely was not. Oh well. The lattes are hot, and the pastry selection looks pretty good, so I'm happy enough.

Well, time to get a bit of work done.