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Saturday morning, I went up to Newbury Park Bike Shop and picked up my new weapon of choice: a gleaming black 2006 Giant OCR1 road bike. Man, it's beautiful. I've been screaming to take it out for a ride, but time constraints and threatening rain kept me out of the saddle. I'd have pictures, but my camera is on the fritz. Go figure.

Saturday, I hosted another night of boardgames and beer for some friends who're moving out of town in the next couple of weeks. We played a few rounds of Settlers of Catan, then settled in with some good beer & Scotch. It was great to see them again, and I'm certainly bummed that they're leaving. Settlers is fantastic. So good, I bought a copy on my lunch break today.

On Sunday I finally dropped by Ikea and picked up a TV stand. I've been "trying to get around to it" for the last 18 months or so, but my fall nesting instinct kicked in hard this week, so I finally braved the weekend crowds, and got my TV off the floor. That gave me a chance to re-arrange some of my A/V gear. The DVD player is now down in the stand, leaving only the media PC and my stereo receiver up top next to the TV. Those'll get stashed somewhere eventually. For now, I'm just happy to have the TV up where I can really see it. Awesome.

And even with all that going on, I had a couple hours to have some ice cream and enjoy A History of Violence. The acting was wonderful, and the story creative. But I can't help thinking that beyond being exceptionally well done, this really is a tried and true story: man battles with notorious past to protect his family and the new life he's built. Recommended, but not groundbreaking they way I'd hoped for from David Cronenberg.

Tonight, it's a short run again, possibly followed by a spin around the neighborhood on my new bike. We'll see. If I don't ride tonight, it'll definitely happen on Wednesday.