So as a concession to the bum-killing cold, I stopped off at CompUSA on the Upper West Side -- where I was meeting with the burgeoning Mike Lupinacci Campaign and then having a much-belated dinner with good ol' Yuliya -- and picked up a 512MB shuffle. It's the right thing for me and my style: resistant to rough treatment, lightweight, and ready to be reloaded on a regular basis with whatever's in heavy rotation lately.

Zipping down from Uriveck's spot in Greenpoint (where I hope to move sometime in January) to my current digs in the Slope took about 25 minutes. That's about five minutes faster than usual, and given the inclement conditions I figure under other circumstances I would have been good for a minute or two more of speed. That's about 6.5 miles as the car drives, so I was making maybe 13 mph on average. A respectable speed.

In the new year I'll be getting a new bike with a bike-computer, so expect some statistics.