so.

you peeps like to talk about shoes. who knew?

i just got back from the gym, where i ran a 5K. yesssss. take that, treadmill! now, those of you in chicago are thinking, "kate, are you on crack? it's the warmest day since like july of 2005 around here. what are you doing inside on the treadmill?" to that i would reply, "well, we pay $120 a month for our gym membership, so i plan on squeezing every penny's worth out of it!" of course, "plan on" is the operative term, because to literally get every penny's worth, i think i'd have to set up basecamp in the locker room.

but it was a delightful day here on the third coast. i only got to experience the height of the nice weather on my walk from the El to the gym, but even that little five block jaunt was full of sights that made me smile. something about that first warm day really puts a nice little glow over everything, doesn't it? i saw a couple walking on belmont, and there was nothing remarkable about them, but just the way that she was smiling as she listened to whatever he was saying was beautiful and comfortable. turning the corner onto broadway, i saw another couple pushing this little animal carrier/stroller hybrid (i shudder to think what a contraption like that costs!), and inside it was their cat, just chilling. had her little nose up in the air, looking around, taking it all in as she was chauffeured down the street.

love it.

but anyway, just because we can't have too much shiny happy fun time around here, i leave you with two important links. first, Justice 4 Two Sisters will keep you up-to-date on all the media coming out around the Duke Lacrosse rape case. it should be a good resource over the next few days and weeks.

second, the NIH has done computer models on how bird flu will hypothetically* hit the united states, and it seems as though we'll be able to blame one state in particular. i'm looking at you, california.



*hypothetical, my ass. as jon stewart would say, "we's all gonna die!!! and we're gonna see it all live, on the tee-vee!!"