First of all, Liz your blog was good. You had the first amendment to express what's in your heart. Adam Should try to understand where both parties are coming from. Ian and I did not get any Zen wear but everyone else did, We keep complaining that we want Zen clothing, I keep getting promise and Still no Zen, So I am proudly going to wear my club chronicle shirt cold, or hot weather only cause Erin's team made all this possible.

I am glad to become apart of history. We were the first Club Chronicle Team. We shared, we blogged, we re-grouped, we struggle, and we are going to complete the task at hand. Greg's right we have become a closer group than most people getting up at 8 every just to prove to ourselves that we can do it. Lets make this for the best.

When I cross that finish line , I know I would not have made it or stayed in this if it was not for all of you. All of you have been my inspiration to keep going, I want to thank you for that. We were winners the day we showed up for first practice. Kyla, you don't have to be on a team, or picked out of 300 hundred people, you were a winner the day you made a commitment to yourself to make a change.

Greg, Liz, Drew, Katie, Chris, Christine, Ingrid, Ian, James, Erin, Cassandra, and Christi. I want to wish you all success in where the future may lead you. If that this only race or many others. We are Club Chronicle 2007 Come Saturday night when we complete this race, that is the night we made our mark in history. So hold your heads up high, be proud, may your bodies stay fit. We all have gain something from this experience, the greatest thing we have gained is friendship, knowledge, and respect from one another.

This Saturday is what we have been waiting for. The pre-drills, Skipping, Jumping in the sky stretches, sit ups/crunches, wall push ups, walking fast, running, jogging, putting our bodies on a schedule, learning what to eat (skittles count as fruit), etc.. All these sacrifice's come into play Saturday night. So lets do it for the team, and for ourselves. Ian where ever you maybe we could use you cheering us on, or just sending us some good thoughts. So Lets go out there and show them what were made of out there!!!!

oh no!

just to clarify, that was intended as a *very genuine* shout-out, i'm so sorry if anything i said sounded sarcastic. i really, really meant that i appreciate the commitment of all who have been involved in the team zen training, and especially the willingness of one, the "12th," who was unguardedly honest with her feelings in a public way, which helped me to be the same. i really do admire that.

i regret that "thank you" sounds like sarcasm. and i guess i should clarify further that "monkey" is a nickname i reserve for only the most special and deserving of cases. guess i have a weird take on things.

i truly apologize for any hurt feelings, as that was entirely the opposite of my intention. arg.

OK, so you've got a group of Democratic politicians running for president in a room (no this isn't a dirty joke, mom, I told you to stop reading this blog! Give me some privacy! Gahd!), and you ask them: What is your position on civil union between same-sex partners?

So…

Who do you think responded with this gem? "I believe that all couples in committed, long-term relationships should have the same rights, benefits, and responsibilities, whether they are straight couples or same-sex couples. I support civil unions to guarantee gay and lesbian couples the same rights as straight couples, including inheritance rights, hospital visitation rights, equal pension and health care benefits, and all of the 1,100 other legal protections government affords married couples. I also support the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act provision that prevents the federal government from recognizing same-sex relationships."

Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis is a man of few words, especially when you catch him moments before soundcheck. However, prepare to catch an earful Friday when the reunited trio hits Emo’s outside with Awesome Color and Grand Champeen.

Off the Record: It seems like a lot of the great indie bands from the Eighties are either reuniting or reissuing old material. What do you attribute that resurgence to?
J Mascis: There's a lot of bad music these days. Maybe we just sound better in comparison. It had been so long that even I had forgotten how great Mission of Burma was live. Seeing them was kind of inspiring for us.

OTR: What feels different this time around?
JM: I guess I like playing live more now. I used to think more of it as a pain. I don’t really know.

OTR: What were the initial practice sessions like for the reunion tour?
JM: They were pretty good. It was kind of strange. It sounded kind of the same immediately. It didn’t take long to get back together.

OTR: At what point on the tour did you know you were going to write an album?
JM: Maybe after about a year or so we realized that we wanted to keep going and to play more shows.

The world's most confusing solicitation hearing is currently underway. As BTP noted, despite posting language clearing the way to potentially broaden the ordinance, Jennifer Kim said she was tabling any expansion. Really, so why fan the flames any further with this hearing? Considering Kim also has a separate item dealing with homeless services, she could just allow comment on that and call it a day, but no such luck. It's the kind of confused move the embattled council member needs to stop making.

So far, Brewster McCracken has made the most hay, asking (breathe deep) APD and city Human Services to come back in 90 days with a plan to gather "good census data on who's panhandling" over the course of a year.

Oh no – Will Wynn's anger issues are coming to the fore again. House the Homeless' Richard Troxell – who apparently signed up to speak with two people donating him time, for a total of nine minutes – made it clear he intended to deliver his speech as planned and permissible at the time of sign up. However, with the phantom expansion a non-starter, council was floating the idea of tabling the item and closing public testimony. Wynn called on Troxell to speak specifically to McCracken's study, but Troxell made it clear he was going to continue with his presentation as planned. Cross talk ensues, with Wynn getting all Bill O'Reilly on his ass, yelling "I'll turn your mic off and go to the next item."

Oh dear.

When is a test of faith not a test of faith? When Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney takes it.

In this morning's "Faith In America" speech, Romney was supposed to be allaying fears with Evangelicals that Mormons weren't Christian. Invoking Jack Kennedy not by name but as "another candidate from Massachusetts," he tried to remove his Mormonism from the debate while still proving he was Christian enough for government work.

"We should acknowledge the Creator as did the Founders – in ceremony and word," said Romney. Which is exactly how he had to put it, because then he might have to deal with that pesky problem of why they didn't similarly 'acknowledge' the matter in the Constitution, or the Bill of Rights, or the Presidential Oath of Office.

Well, what a surprise to click open the MySpace this evening and find one of our own Austin lasses, Lisa G., as this week's Femme Tart of the Week on Top Femme!

According to the freshly popped tart, "So I'm checking my blueberry [sic] at work and Fukn Bulldyke would like to be added as one of my friends. I knew something had shifted my paradigm." Apparently, Lisa's MySpace page was private, and Mr. FB wanted to take a peek. Hmmm. Mysterious.

"Then I see a message from Top Femme saying, "You're the Femme Tart of the Week! So, I go to the site, and I see myself plastered: top, bottom, and blogged, and commented on in double digits!

"And oh, oh, I blush," she giggles.

Art Basel Miami, the city's annual art clusterf*ck, is about to explode a can of art and design lovin' whoop-ass onto the generally depressed real-estate market and populace of Dade County, Florida.

Down in the dumps because you can't sell your condo for a couple mil? It's ok – go to Swarovski's booth and purchase one (or two, or THREE!!) of the deconstructed chandeliers made in collaboration with Diller and Scofidio Renfro, a fabulous and fabulist architectural firm (check out that Blur Building!). The Light Socks, as they are called, are made from an open mesh bag, pounds of crystals and a hidden light. They are available in three sizes: single, double, and long.

During Art Basel the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami will be exhibiting a survey of Jorge Pardo's works in a conceptual installation entitled House. The Cuban-born artist's practice blurs the (ahem, non-existent) boundaries between art and design. Bravo!

And finally, although this has nothing to do with Miami (sorry!) Design House Stockholm recently began selling their Chord Lamp, a truly magical and whimsical light object. Can I add that to my wish list?

For the record: no, I'm not an Aggie.

I just think any audience we have should know that there's one person whose picture and blog do not appear on the Chronicle website, because she wasn't chosen to be part of the "club". And yet, I think she has played a wacky and valuable role in helping us be the group that we are, and made me, at least, feel special.

I will here-to-fore, affectionately, refer to our 12th, as "Monkey" (which might make more sense in a minute.)

Monkey submitted an application to be part of the Club Chronicle Team Zen Challenge, like the rest of us. For whatever reasons, Monkey, and others who were not chosen, weren't notified before our first practice that they wouldn't be part of the Chronicle contest.

Monkey showed up for the first training session, and she was pissed. Or at least, she had feelings enough to vent about it in another blog, in which she refered to our Chronicle contact as having "monkey balls" [enough to notify winners without letting all contestants know the results].

Lucky for us, our Chronicle contact has an incredible sense of humor, so she related this to our team with what seemed almost like pride. So we, of course, couldn't help but search out the blog of the seemingly bitter woman who coined the funniest phrase since "kitten fisting" (that one's locally-coined, people - check it out if you haven't heard about it -- the phrase, i mean, not the activity).

Anyway, Monkey also had the balls to make some sassy comments about a lot of us in her blog, which I think was our first exposure to what it could mean to put ourselves out to an internet public for judgment. And our group got a little sassafrass in return.

Monkey's response to our outcry, in a nutshell: feelings are meant to be had, and blogs are meant to express them. And then, she showed up to at least as many Team Zen meetings at Town Lake as most of us, which reminded me that the blog, the contest and the Club in general, were pretty secondary to the reason we each wanted to be part of this -- to do something good for ourselves.

So thank you, Monkey, for setting a stage that made Club Chronicle feel fancy, if only by making it seem like something worthy of being upset about not being part of. Thank you, especially, for reading our blogs and regularly taking the time to post encouraging comments about our stories. And thank you mostly, for continuing to train after your part of the contest was over -- an example to all of us, moving forward.

Yours are gorilla-sized, Monkey! And I hope mine are at least half as solid, to allow me to continue a commitment to training after our part of the contest is "over".

In the process of our challenge, I have actually lost some weight, or at least found, like a lot of us, that my clothes fit differently.
I'm still a smoker -- I'm smoking right now -- but that will change someday.
I think I've known since day-one that, push come to shove, I can run three miles (if a grizzly, scary monster were chasing me, I wouldn't stop -- I just imagine that, and figure the fitness and pleasure aspects will creep in later).
Mostly, I've enjoyed just showing up, especially because there's a group of individuals brave enough to bring their own shit to the table to meet me. Most of us probably didn't reach our ultimate goals during this challenge. But every week, we've kept those goals in mind, and nearly every week, we've showed up to face them. At least we're paddling *up*river on d'Nile, and that's commendable progress, in my book.

I'm looking forward to Saturday, when all 12 of us will be there, to let the lights shine on whatever commitments we've each made, and the huevos it's taken to acknowledge them on a semi-regular basis.