So I can spend 10 minutes writing here … so here goes …

1. I should be working on my talks. I will be in Pittsburgh, speaking at a couple of different Catholic Charities events this weekend. But no Steelers for me! They are playing out of town (on Thursday) this week and I am going to be in Pittsburgh all of 24 hours anyway.

I need to “tweak” my talks. Meaning, I need to sift through the piles of notecards I pulled from a cabinet and placed on my bed earlier today and put together two coherent talks. After all this time, you would think I would be more organized about this and actually keep my talks from previous events for immediate re-use. But I’m not. Whenever I go back through previous talks’ notes, I always want to change things. I guess that means I am growing and changing. (I hope in the right directions.)

2. Math Team! Eamon is participating on the school math team this year, and I cannot get over the thrill of calling my son a “math-lete.” Over and over again. This does not get old for me. Freaks and Geeks, anyone?

3. 5K update. I am excited to be preparing for my next race, in mid-November, using this training program. I find that running on a track more often than the road is lots easier on my joints, but kind of boring also. This training regimen might just help me stay focused and un-bored.

4. VP Debate. Will you be watching tomorrow night? I would like to, but I think those aforementioned Steelers might just be hogging the airtime around here tomorrow night. Will you be watching? I “watched” the last debate via other people’s comments and quotes on twitter. That was kind of an educational experience. Maybe I will live tweet the debate and the game at the same time. I got an email from PF Chang’s earlier today, offering a special deal for people getting take-out for the debate. Something about making it into a party appeals to me. Maybe because so much of the political season feels ugly (Hmmm, Facebook?) to me.

5. Hating on the Rach. Don’t you kind of hate Rachel for having the nerve to admit that she never ever never ever (no really, never!) fights with her husband? Yeah, me too. I am scheming something, though. If we all put our internet minds together, we can totally get those two to fight. What do you think? Send her flowers, from him, with her name misspelled? Sneak into their house and leave ugly lipstick prints on his shirt collars?

Seriously. All this happy marriage stuff is obnoxious. The time to act is now.

Ooooooor … we could all just admit that every marriage is different and every spouse has a different temperament, and all of that adds up to an infinite number of different combinations, some placid ones and some more potentially explosive ones. That means that some couples might need to work harder at “not fighting” than others, but comparing and contrasting our own relationship with others is an exercise in futility and unhappiness. All of us need to work hard and pray hard for our marriages, so let’s focus there.

And on Project Balducci Marriage Bomb, of course. They’ll never know what hit them.

6. Whoops! I’m a minute over. Story of my life. See you next week!