New design

After five and a half years, it was time for something different, which is why you're now looking at a Blogger customized template. The background photo is a Blogger stock photo. The huge bright blue photo under the title is mine. It's a little too big, but an attention-grabber none the less.

Remembering why I'm thankful

In Cleveland, you have to want to be thankful.

In a town where the economy is badly damaged, jobs are drying up, the population is shrinking and the sports teams haven't delivered a major league professional title in 45 years, it's incredibly easy to focus on the ways in which we're the gum on the bottom of fate's shoe. It's far too easy to look down the road and see a Cleveland in which LeBron James has left and is winning championships elsewhere, in which casinos have become a failed experiment that haven't driven any type of growth except crime.

It's way too easy to look to the heavens and ask, "What have you done for me lately?"

That's why we need the holiday season in this town.

Not the retail-driven, hyper-commercialized, big-box retailer, buy-the-perfect-present holidays. The holidays of quiet reflection, looking back on the past year and taking stock of your life.

It's fitting that Thanksgiving kicks off the season. Because before you can look to the spoils of Christmas morning and the hopeful promise of a new year, you need to remember what you have right now. Even if you need to search the folds of your brain for your source of gratitude, it's worth the time. You might even learn something about yourself in the process.

Need some encouragment? Let me set the example. Here are some of the things, great and small, that I'm thankful for this holiday season:

In Cleveland, I can make it across town in 35 minutes

When you get right down to it, Cleveland is just the right size. Big enough to be a substantial metropolitan area, but not so big that commuting becomes a migraine-inducing struggle. In most cities, major traffic jams are a fact of life and urban commuting is a part-time job that you hold in addition to your full-time job.

It's been driven home to me the past couple of years, ever since my girlfriend (now fiancee and wife by next September) moved here from the Toledo area. I live on the west side. My fiancee lives in Lake County. We often drive back and forth to see each other during the week, despite the fact that our apartment complexes are separated by 27 miles.

In Cleveland, it's possible. In Atlanta, for instance, it would be a lot more difficult. Atlanta's outerbelt is often choked with traffic by mid-afternoon. Their rush hour commonly lasts 3-4 hours, and their non-rush hour daytime traffic is like Cleveland's rush hour volume.

Three successful 5Ks

I've been running on a fairly regular schedule for almost two years. But it wasn't until this past summer when I decided to start taking running more seriously.

I always hated running growing up. It made my sides hurt and my lungs burn. But I decided to, in small increments, fight through my body's temper tantrums and get myself to the point where I could run a sustained 3.1 miles. In October, I ran my first 5K and won the second place award for my age group. I ran two other races in October and November.

Am I fast? not by a long shot. I run 5Ks in about half an hour. But I ran them, I didn't sustain any injuries and I can officially say I've taken a path in life that I thought I'd never take. It leads to a finish line at the end of a road race.

I'm looking forward to more 5Ks, and maybe 10Ks, in 2010.

Sunsets over Lake Erie

One of the great advantages of spending time in Lake County is that the Lake Erie shoreline starts to veer sharply to the northeast. As a result, each summer you get a front-row view for some of the best water sunsets east of California.

Sometimes, you can kind of forget that Cleveland is, at its heart, a marine city. A drive up the Lake Erie coast at sunset puts you back in touch with your inland sea roots.

Melt Bar and Grilled

Only about five miles from my apartment. A nationally-recognized sandwich paradise worth the trip -- when you can get a table, that is.

Every Cavs game I've seen in person since 2003

No matter what happens after this season, I've seen LeBron James play in person dozens of times. I've seen him bring 20,000 people to their feet with a mind-blowing dunk, an emphatic block, a physics-bending pass. I've been in the vortex of sound. I've seen with my own eyes what he is capable of.

And now, I can also say that I've seen Shaquille O'Neal in person. Time is running out for that.

Jim Tressel's continued dominance of Michigan

I'm marrying into a family of Michigan and Detroit fans. The benefits are immeasurable.

Three ballparks within easy driving distance

So the Indians aren't winning? Don't find the atmosphere at The Prog to be all that fulfilling? There is always the Lake County Captains at Classic Ballpark, and the Lake Erie Crushers at one of the hidden gems of the Cleveland area, All-Pro Freight Stadium in Avon. I frequent all three parks in the summer, but the Crushers' digs are quickly becoming a favorite.

Oberin College's campus

I first visited the campus in 2006. You might have your opinions about the college or the town, but the square at the center of campus is a great, and picturesque, relaxing place. I try to get out to Oberlin just to walk around and snap photos at least once or twice a year.

Post 1,000

It took me nearly five years, but here it is.

If you've been reading since December 27, 2004, I thank you.

The Boobie Gibson interview

...Such as it was.

Thursday evening, on assignment for TheClevelandFan.com, I got the chance to pull aside one Mr. Daniel "Boobie" Gibson of the Cavaliers for a round of quick-fire questions, as Gibson finished up an autograph session at a cell phone store in North Olmsted.

The line for autographs was insanely long, and the public relations rep in charge of coordinating the event told me I was Gibson's 14th interview of the day. So I was understandably told to keep it short.

Herded into a back room of the store along with Gibson and a bunch of other people, I wedged 11 questions into somewhere around five minutes. All the while, Gibson signed a few extra items for various people and prepared to make a dash for his nice, warm limo.

That's the back story. The interview in its entirety can be read here.

Back up and running

After three weeks without Internet access in my apartment, I'm finally back up and running with a wireless Internet connection. Now that I don't have to do my leisure time Interneting from remote sites, hopefully it will mean something of a return to normalcy, both for me and my blog.

Internet update

I received a letter from Zaremba Friday afternoon, notifying residents that control of the cable and Internet service at Zaremba properties will shift to Cox as of this coming Wednesday, May 28. So with any luck, Internet service will be available in my apartment by middle-to-late next week, depending on how fast I get a new modem.

I'm hoping to get new sports-related content posted over the Memorial Day weekend. In the meantime, go here to get my thoughts on the end of the Cavs season, and what the summer holds for the team.

Internet is out

Here is a note to apologize for what is shaping up to be a period of sporadic/infrequent posting as the owners of my apartment complex transfer from one cable and Internet provider to another.

The Internet and cable went out at my complex last Wednesday night, right at about halftime of Cavs-Celtics Game 5, and it apparently triggered an Armageddon battle between the cable and Internet company (Northern Ohio Broadband) and the apartment management group (Zaremba).

The cable came back on, at least partly, late Wednesday. Many stations have sound but no picture, some have a "contact customer service" line at the bottom (including SportsTime Ohio, meaning no Tribe games.) Some are just frozen images from sometime last week.

Meanwhile, I'm working on five days with no Internet access in my apartment.

A pre-emptive phone message on Northern Ohio Broadband's answering service Friday acknowledged the problems with cable and Internet, then accused Zaremba of being at fault because they allegedly wouldn't let Northern Ohio Broadband's techies have access to their equipment to fix it. They asked apartment residents to contact Zaremba directly and put pressure on them.

Zaremba sent out a flier Friday announcing that the properties would be switching to Cox "in the near future." To which I say, the Olympics will also be occurring in the near future. That doesn't mean I want to wait until August to get my Internet back.

So we have a cable company that wants residents to get involved and take sides because apparently the two entities can't play nice, get along and provide the service we're paying them to provide, and we have an apartment management company that is promising new, better cable and Internet service on an ambiguous, indefinite timeline that might or might not include the 12th of Never. But we'll be really happy when we get the new service, they assure us.

This has to be the messiest utility transition in recorded history. The residents should get some kind of refund or price break out of this for our inconvenience from somebody, but I think I'd be wise to not hold my breath on that one.

Anyway, that's why I don't have my homework today, Mr. Teacher. The cable company ate it, with an assist from the company that cashes my rent check each month.

Pigskin Podcast

Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy looks vaguely like porn star-turned-adult film industry spokesman Ron Jeremy. And in the latest edition of the Pigskin Podcast, I sound vaguely like a football analyst. Most of that is due to outstanding engineering work done by Joel Hammond and his cohorts over at the 'Cast.

Anyway, if you would like to hear my takes on the teams of the AFC North, and get an early May prediction of how I think the division will shake out this year, click here.

AP award finalist

A quick bit of personal news to pass along...

I have been named a finalist in the 2006 Associated Press Society of Ohio awards. My five-part Medina County Gazette series on growth in Montville Township, which ran in January 2006, is one of four finalist pieces vying for the "Best Enterprise Reporting" award.

The order of the awards -- first place, second, third and honorable mention -- will be revealed at the APSO banquet in May.

The is the second APSO award I have been nominated for. I placed third in the "Best Feature Writer" category in 2003.