If you attended Podcamp Pittsburgh Four, you’ll probably recall these two (Not Sorg. I’m sure you already know him.)

They’ll be in town this weekend. And they want to have a drink with you on Saturday night.

HP and DD will magically appear at Piper’s sometime ar0und 7 p.m. Saturday; I imagine we’ll be there for a while. So come by whenever you have a minute, have a beer and say hello.

Because if you don’t, you might get a look like this.

We’re well-equipped for this. For instance, on Saturday, Mrs. Crappy pulled out our boxed set of Looney Tunes classics and popped them on for a traditional Saturday-morning slobfest.

This prompted the resumption of a long-standing debate in our house: “Rabbit of Seville” or “What’s Opera, Doc”?

If you’re of a certain age, chances are pretty good you don’t need any further explanation. But if you do: “Rabbit” is the Bugs Bunny episode where he is chased into the Hollywood Bowl by Elmer Fudd and proceeds to take over the production of “Barber of Seville,” featuring a complete makeover of Fudd.

“Opera” featured Fudd as a viking, chasing, and eventually killing, Bugs to the tune of Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” (you know, the “kill the wabbit, kill the WAAABIT” one…).

Both shorts are undeniably classics, but Mrs. Crappy and I have never agreed on which one is best; I’m a “Rabbit” guy and Mrs. Crappy will forever stand by “Opera.”

So, of course, I asked Twitter.

And Twitter mostly agreed with me. I saw 10 responses to my question (Twitter poll: Rabbit of Seville or What’s Opera, Doc?); seven people were with me and the other three sided with Mrs. Crappy.

But while we discussed the results, Mrs. Crappy and I came up with another one that, if I’m basing this on the short’s ability to make me giggle and nothing else, that for me might top the other two. Astoundingly, it wasn’t included in the DVD set we own, so we watched it online.

Yep. Giggling like I was an 8 year old again.

Here’s what I want you to do: Guess the short in the comments. Two hints: It’s a period piece and Bugs Bunny does not appear. I’ll have a $10 iTunes gift card ready for the first person to get it right (including the correct title!). And if you want, I’d also like to hear your favorite Warner Brothers cartoon as well.

Go!

And this one, my friends, is a doozy.

My friend @TheLegendofJill posted this to Facebook late Wednesday; I saw it this morning and had to take a look. What Jill posted:

1) Find out the song that was No. 1 the week you were born.
2) Find that song on YouTube.
3) Post that video on your wall without shame.

Jill was happy to post a video of Rupert Holmes’ “Escape (The Pina Colada Song),” a delightfully cheesy slice of the late 1970s. In response, I joked that no one was making music videos in 1966.

And oh, how I wish I was correct. Had I been born a couple weeks earlier, it would have been The Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love.” A week later? The Four Tops’ “Reach Out I’ll Be There.” And I would have been perfectly happy with either classic Motown song.

But no.

Ladies and gentlemen, the No. 1 song on Oct. 12, 1966:

Let’s be straightforward here. I know this song. I know it well. And I’ve always hated it. As in, The Association’s “Cherish” Is One Of The Worst Songs In The History Of Music Hatred.

So, Jill. I found the song. I found and posted the video.

But posting it without shame? Sorry. No can do.

And I thought I would share.

• Most Read: That was nickname, the post about the origin of the Uncle Crappy name. It was followed by did it again, a two-year-old post about the pizza party we hosted (more about that one in a minute) and flw,ftw, another two-year-old post about our visit to Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob (the one with the pictures I wasn’t allowed to post).
• Commenters: You’re all awesome, but Becky is the most awesomest; she was the top commenter for the year. Ms. Hellohahanarf was followed by Large, Kewyson, Gina and RPM. Thanks, y’all.
• How they got here, Part One: Twitter is how you got here, which probably means I should do a better job of linking new posts there (or, you know, writing more posts in the first place). Twitter was followed by Networked Blogs — the Facebook app that I just shitcanned a couple days ago because it sucks — WordPress, Facebook and Google Reader.
• How they got here, Part Two: This is the fun one. I think of myself as having pretty good taste when it comes to food and especially drink. So when I looked through the search terms that brought people here most often, I was a bit surprised. Following “Uncle Crappy” (the most popular search term), the searches that got people here were for “Seagram’s Wine Coolers,” “wine cooler drinks” and “IC Light Mango.” There is an explanation here. The wine coolers references were part of the pizza party post, because Beth left a mess of them in our beer fridge (Um, thanks?) and, of course, I reviewed the mango monstrosity back in June in what turned out to be the fourth most-read post of the year.

Thanks, guys — that was a pretty good year, on your part at least. As for me, I’m going to find a way to muster more than the 106 posts I put up in 2011.

* The Crappys — including my parents — will in the Mon Wharf lot by 8:30. As we’ve done the past two years, we’re going to park on the side closer to the Point, so head down that way when you arrive and look for the red Element.

* Haven’t been to the Wharf before? Best way is to approach from Wood Street at Fort Pitt Boulevard and look for the yellow sign, as seen in the pic below:

* Make an effort to get there early. We lost some swimmers last year when they got stuck in traffic.

* Swimming usually starts after 9. We’ll go around 9:15 or something.

* The weather’s going to suck. Expect rain and temps around 40 when it’s time to swim.

* Bring: Towels, warm clothes, cameras, shoes you can wear in the water and others to change into after.

* Tip: It might sound counter-intuitive, but I’ve found it’s easier to make the plunge in just a bathing suit. You’ll have much less cold, wet clothing to remove once you get out — and trust me, you’ll be in a hurry to get the wet, cold stuff off.

* When we’re done? We’re heading to Piper’s Pub, 1828 E. Carson St., for beer and Irish boxty (or maybe that’s just me).

* Watch Twitter tomorrow morning for any updates. I’ll use the #yinzteamplunge hashtag for easy searching.

See y’all there.

Yes, I’m going to do it again.

Yes, we’ll be in the Mon Wharf parking lot, on the side closer to the Point, by 9 a.m. Sunday.

Yes, I still think this is the best way possible to start the new year.

No, it’s not going to be as warm as it was last Jan. 1.

Yes, I still think you should join me.

Yes?

Thanks, Em.

A few minutes after 10 a.m. Saturday, I crossed the mat on North Shore Drive, set to run for 3.1 miles.

Thirty-six minutes and fifty-two seconds later, I was done. Tired. And awfully happy.

I was really concerned about my pace at first — I was pretty keyed up and didn’t want to start too fast and run myself out before I finished. But Kelly and Pam kept me at a reasonable pace, and after almost a mile I felt pretty good. By the time we got to the halfway point, I was feeling great, and it apparently showed — Kelly said we were running just over a 10-minute pace, which is ridculously fast for me. That was a little hard to maintain as we ran back towards the stadiums on the trail because of the crowd.

And it got harder when we turned up towards the finish line. The course was almost dead flat, with two exceptions: a little downhill slope after we veered onto River Avenue and back at the science center, where I completely forgot that we’d have to head up a short, steep hill to get back to North Shore Drive. Ouch. It wasn’t much of a hill, but it was a killer at that point. I give Kelly all the credit in the world for letting me know how much was left and gently nudging me to keep up a decent pace.

Seeing the finish line was a relief. Seeing Sara, who walked over from her apartment to watch, was a boost.

And crossing the line with Kelly and Pam? Awesome.

We grabbed some drinks and I headed back to the finish, where I found Emily just in time for the two of us to watch Mrs. Crappy, who ran more of the 5K than she walked, cross the finish line.

I did it. And I’m ready to do it again.

—-

I didn’t do this by myself, though. As I’ve said before, the thing that kept me from quitting this time was asking for help from my friends. You guys did that, on Twitter, on Daily Mile and whenever we saw each other in the last two months. That’s the one thing that made all the difference this time around.

I have to thank the people who came out — or tried to — on Saturday. The morning was kind of a mess, and there were a few people I didn’t even see before, during or after the race — but I really appreciate the fact that you were there.

Pam and Kristen — our neighbor who until just a few weeks ago knew me only from reading this blog — get special thanks for running with me the whole way. Kristen — and Roxy, the honey-brown dog I met on California Avenue a while back — came out to run with a bunch of people she had never met; Pam has been one of my biggest Daily Mile supporters, and having her there meant a lot.

You may have heard me mention my coaching staff occasionally in the last couple months. Kelly and Emily are two-thirds of that staff, and they have been amazing. Both have patiently answered an unending stream of stupid questions; both cheered for me nearly every time I finished a C25K workout. And they were both there on Saturday — Kelly ran with me every step, and Em was cheering at the finish. It it not an exaggeration to say I could not have done this without these two, and I am so grateful for both of them.

And I am most proud of the third member of my coaching staff. Mrs. Crappy has had the never-ending #deathcold in the weeks leading up to Saturday; that meant she really got to run only twice in the two months leading up to the race, and despite that, she ran more than half of the course. If you know her as I do, that’s not a surprise. You know she’s stubborn as hell; you also know she’s really good at this. When she was running years ago, I was always impressed with her steady pace that she could keep up for miles and miles. She also used to pester me about running; because I am nearly as stubborn as she is, I never listened — until now.

Honey, you were right. Thank you.

Since the beginning of October, I’ve been spending a lot of time with a mysterious English woman. We usually meet early in the morning, often before sunrise, when she would spend a half-hour whispering sweet nothings to me in that amazing accent.

“Warm up.” “Run!” “Walk.” “Run!” “Cool down.” Spicy stuff, right?

But as I progressed through Couch to 5K, I noticed that my English friend was talking to me less and less each week. As the walking sessions disappeared from the workouts, she became … distant. Sure, she sounded as enthusiastic as always, but something just wasn’t the same. So after my run last Saturday morning, we broke up.

Oh, and I finished C25K the same day.

And that means I was just a week — and now about 48 hours — away from my first actual race on Saturday. I know I can do this, but I’m nervous and excited about it anyway. The course isn’t hard — I’ve walked it before — the weather’s going to be great and it sounds like I’ll have a couple dozen friends joining me for the race, something I’m grateful for. I can’t wait for Saturday morning, but there’s still some doubt, too, even though I’ve already run the distance a few times. I don’t know why this is bugging me so much, but I can’t wait until Saturday morning to go run and dispel the doubts.

And in the meantime, I’ve found a new woman to run with. She’s the voice in the Nike Plus app; she seems nice, but she’s all business, chattering about pace and distance and blah, blah, blah. I guess I’ll stick with her for a while, but I’m kind of missing the nice English lady.

—

If you’re joining us on the Jingle Bell Run, you can pick up your packets early at the REI at South Side Works, or you can just grab them before the race. And if you’re still thinking about joining Team Crappy, you can do so here. See y’all Saturday!