The Astros may have jumped to Central Division faves overnight with the announcement of the acquisition of four-time All-Star shortstop Miguel Tejada. Houston had to give up five players in return but it's worth it, no doubt. They should start printing those World Series tickets right now. Here's the players Baltimore received for their superstar shortstop: outfielder Luke Scott, pitchers Matt Albers, Troy Patton and Dennis Sarfate, and third baseman Michael Costanzo. I'd say the biggest blow to the franchise is losing highly-touted pitching prospect Patton, but still a small price to pay for a player of Tejada's talent. Take a look at some of Tejada's career stats: .287 batting ave., .344 on-base pct., .477 slugging, 258 homers, 1,033 RBIs, 2002 American League MVP, and numerous other awards. I guess that leaves Adam Everett and Chris Burke on the trading block. Time to start taking a look at that bullpen.

"Cram it in" edition highlights for this Thursday, Dec. 13 meeting – the last this year.

Item 15: Changing Mala Suerte Drive to Buena Suerte Drive. OK, Suerte!

Item 16: Approving the 2008 inductees to the Austin Music Memorial, including Doug Sahm, Roy Montelongo, and Tary Owens.

Items 17,18: Brewster McCracken-boosted biotech and wireless economic development deals, vis a vis UT's Austin Technology Incubator. Sidelined a few weeks back.

Items 34-38: Acquiring five homes as part of the FEMA-affiliated Onion Creek Voluntary Flood Buyout.

By the time the crowd gathered on the Lamar Pedestrian Bridge early Sunday morning, after the last official night of Ground Zero Texas stumbled to a close, there were lots of glassy eyes and half-heartedly chugged beers and embarrassed exclamations (“I feel like I’m 16 again!”). Then, the sound of breaking glass, a cheer, and someone screaming something like "Yallsowassed!!!!"

Pissed Jeans had turned in a short, slobbering set at Beerland a few hours earlier, and live, there were even more Jesus Lizard similarities: Korvette got shirtless pretty quickly, made ugly faces, blew his nose, dumped a bottle of water down the back of his pants, and huffed and puffed like a last call drunk. Bassist Randy Huth took the somber Wm. David Sims stance, while maniacal drummer Sean McGuinness and guitarist Bradley Fry egged Korvette on through the massive “Don’t Need Smoke to Make Myself Disappear,” complete with ... a smoke machine! Die Rotzz was a no-show so ubiquitous one-man band King Louie filled in, but the night’s big surprise came from Providence, Rhode Island’s Snake Apartment, whose singer resembled a red-haired Zach Galifianakis with bad tattoos. The rest of the fest was not without cancellations and lineup jigsaws, but that's par for the course.

Local rider-owned bike company Terrible One is hosting a benefit for their friend Jimmy Levan who was in a serious skateboard accident last month that left him in a coma for two weeks. Needless to say his medical bills are outrageous and that's where you step in. Bring yourself and your significant other (along with your wallet) down to T1 (1809 E. Sixth St.) this Saturday and enjoy live music from Transmography, Tia Carrera, and the Snake Trap as well as a high air contest and an art show with 15 artists selling their prints. All the money raised at this benefit will go directly to Levan and his family. The benefit gets rolling at 1pm and concludes at 8pm.

Seaholm – the historic power plant to be transformed by a private development team into a mixed-use mecca – should move one step closer to fruition at City Council this Thursday. A public hearing is posted, before council approves rezoning of the site to Downtown Mixed-Use, Central Urban Redevelopment overlay. DMU-CURe allows building heights of 120 feet with a 5-1 floor-to-area ratio and opens the door to additional height and density variances.

Presidential races are always about struggling to get on the ballot, and not every contender manages or bothers to get a primary position in all 50 states. So far, the only Democrat to file the necessary paperwork in Texas is John Edwards. On the Republican side, there's Rudy Giuliani and Hoa Tran. What? You don't know Houston-based doctor of Oriental medicine Hoa Tran?

Tran is just one of the 76 Republicans, 50 Democrats and 120 assorted Greens, Libertarians, Constitutionalists, Reformers, Light Party members, United Fascist Unionists, unaffiliateds and independents that have announced their plans to run for President.

Oh my gosh, there were so many people there. I could not believe it.  I was so excited, that nervous thing I was talking about earlier, yea that went away fast.  I was so excited that my diabetes  was going low (weird) luckily I had some pick me ups. This was very exciting , I can wait until the next one. We even had Ian there, actually a picture of Ian was pinned to Lizzy's back!  it was just so exciting.  During training I assumed that only people that showed up would be skinny to average people attended these events.  Yea, No!  There were all sizes of people. So I finished not last as I dreamed the night before, but at 1 hour and 9 minutes.  I stopped twice for 15 seconds and pushed my self by jogging down hill.  This event was so refreshing. I could not completed this if it wasn't for everyone giving me support.  Now for real!!  Yes there were times I wish it was over and I could not myself going for more.  I almost died after I saw the two mile marker.  My shirt was completely soaked. I was hoping for that hot coco stand to be open. Though I did notice on the way back they had a shortcut for people that did not want to walk the complete  3 miles. Yea that was very tempting, but then I thought of:  I wonder if anyone was waiting on me at finish line? If Ian was here which he do? If I quit now then I would be back to my old self.  Starting something and not finishing it. So I went trucking on. I pushed myself hard As I was coming to the finish line I saw Ingrid, I almost cried and asked her if she would carry me, but back to reality, she and little Becky walked with me back to finish line.  Drew and his women was there at the finish line waiting for me. I really did not know If I was going to complete this, I was hot, tired, legs were killing me, and yea... 1 hour and 9 minutes later I crossed that finish line, and felt accomplished of this goal.  I was not huffing and puffing, I had a steady breath crossing over.  After cooling off and eating some fabulous chicken with vegetables from my sponsor Zen Food Fast. I saw Cassandra and her BF, and ate with them. I drove home, while texting  everyone that was not there my finished time. I was so proud of myself. I felt accomplished.  I am glad that I pushed and had been pushed during training. As Patrick asked me if I wanted him to stop pushing me, (I thought hmm he could just push me in a wheel chair tonight), but before I could answer he said he will not stop, cause he believes I can do this. I can do this and with me completing this unforeseeable goal.  I am going to take the offer from Adam owner of Zen Food Fast. I will continue to show up every  Saturday and train, for a better tomorrow.  Now that I have a set time, I will strive for a faster time. When I got home I needed a shower I was totaly drenched even my socks were soaked. I stayed in that night and just relaxed. The next day, I though to my self I just did something to changed my life I completed a 5k, so most people I would probably rest the next day.  Not me I went to the gym and worked out. did about 10 minutes on the bike, and then did various weight lifting.  After talking with some co-workers and Drew.  I will no longer use treadmill unless it  is a bad day outside.   I will be using the gym for my weight lifting and and cardio classes, and swimming..  Walking and soon to jog will be done outside. So Yes If your there you will see me next Saturday, I also encourage you all to come out!!  Here some information about what goes on out there: "Team Zen. Team Zen is FREE and promotes getting our community to live healthier and fuller lives. Zen Japanese Food Fast partnered with RunTex and the Brain & Spine Center to create a running group open to anyone and everyone. Every Saturday at 8:00 a.m. you can head down to Auditorium Shores on Lady Bird Lake, and coach Patrick Guy from RunTex University will be on hand to help you achieve your goals. Zen will provide you with a Tokyo breakfast and coffee after your coached walk or run. Once a month, in partnership with Team Brain & Spine at Brackenridge, there will be a seminar on nutrition, injury prevention, and running programs to help your training. Additionally, Zen Japanese Food Fast has worked with a nutritionist to offer three different meal plans to help you in your quest to eat healthier and smarter." If it was not for the Chronicle, I would have never received the opportunity to better my life style, and learned how to be physical healthy. Thank you Erin and Sadie. I am pumped, my sweat glands are ready, my spirit is high as a Marvin Gaye said "Let's get it on" (exercising that is).

Normally I don't go in for the swag, but this one isn't half bad. To promote the DVD release of The Simpsons Movie, a "team of Simpson Elves will be everywhere giving out free yellow Simpson's Santa Hats" on Saturday, Dec. 15, from noon to 4pm. I know, I know: "Everywhere" doesn't exactly narrow the field, but a further hint from the publicist says something about readers having to swim up "creek" ... which leads us to believe that Barton Creek Mall is the place to be. Happy hunting.

I can’t believe we did it! The Trail of Lights is over, and we all finished the race (including Ian, in spirit, carried on Lizzie’s back in the form of a picture). It’s been so much fun getting to know the rest of the Club Chronicle folks and Team Zen folks, and it’s been a great opportunity. And now, of course, I’m hooked! I want to keep training and do some more 5ks. Before this race a friend told me “You’ll be hooked – once you do one and get your time, you’ll want to do more and improve your time.” And she’s right! So I hope to keep the commitment going and do some more races, and continue to get in better shape. I know I could have trained harder for this race, but now I feel like I know my body CAN do it – and can do it faster next time! My time was either 34 or 36 minutes – I’m not sure when I actually crossed the start line. Better then I expected – so I was happy with that! So with that, I’d like to share my list of the The Top 5 Things I learned during my Club Chronicle/Team Zen Challenge and the Trail of Lights race: 1)There are some really fit people in Austin And they all seem to converge on Town Lake on Saturday mornings. All of the fit moms out there with your cute kids and jogging strollers, you are my heroes and inspiration. If you can get two kids up and dressed and out by 8am, I can certainly drag myself out of bed to work out. 2)I’m convinced that our trainer Patrick runs everywhere he goes. You want some water? Let me run over and get it. We’re going to move over to this area to do some drills? I’ll meet you over there because I’m running. Seriously – the guy amazes me! He runs 12 miles at like 5am on Saturday mornings and THEN trains us. He’s awesome. Thanks Patrick! 3)Tokyo breakfast on Saturday mornings from Zen is really good. I don’t really know if they serve breakfasts like that in actual Tokyo, Japan – but that delicious poached egg, brown rice, veggies and super spicy sauce really hits the spot after training. 4)The Trail of Lights race is crazy. People dressed up as presents, dogs dressed up, strollers all decorated, speedo running santas. I was huffing and puffing and sweating by the time I crossed the finish line, and these people did it wearing cardboard boxes and next to nothing speedos! I’m amazed! It was SO much fun though. 5)People in Austin are just really great. What a great group of supportive and fun folks Team Zen is. It’s amazing and actually inspiring that you can take a completely random group of people new to running (and for most of us – new to working out again) and keep it cohesive and keep it going. I’m really proud of everyone for what they accomplished, and hope that we all continue to do great things for ourselves, and great things as a team. Go Team Zen! Thanks again for reading and for your support. I did feel special on Saturday night when I had people looking at our Zen running gear and checking out our team. I don’t think any of us could have done it without the support of the team and our family and friends! Hope to see all of you again at the next finish line! What race is next? See you there!