This is your chance to jingle, jangle, jingle. No, wait, that’s spurs. This would be the jingling sound made by the traditional Christmas Jingle Bell, the kind me Mum had on the back of the front door when I was a teenager so that she could hear what time I got in at night. Well ok, morning, really. The thing is, though, I mean, I knew they were there, right? So I got really good at opening that door in such as way as to make the absolute least amount of noise. Think ninja here, is what I’m saying.

Where was I? Oh, right. The 2006 Jingle Bell Run/Walk takes place this year on December 2nd at 10 a.m., and the starting line is the North park Lodge. The main event is a 5k run/walk, and there’s also a 1 mile “fun run”, although usually the only fun run I do is a beer run. Whichever one you do, you get a jingle bell to attach to your person, wherever you want./p>

(To my regular reader(s): This is a respectable event, so please, attach it somewhere tasteful. You know… Like your shoelace, or your lapel, or your hat. Not on your “bathing suit area”, if you know what I mean. And I know you do.)

But you can show up in a holiday-themed costume, and that’s actually encouraged. The idea is to have fun while raising the money for the Arthritis Foundation, a truly deserving cause. And hey, everybody who raises 100 bucks gets entered into a drawing for two free round tip tickets on Delta Airlines. If you win, allow me to make a suggestion – Vegas, late February, for two reasons: 1.) It’s warmer there than here at that time, and it’ll be a good mid-winter getaway, and 2.) I think that’s when I’m going and we could get all liquored up on the Strip. I mean, they know how to treat you in vegas – they got showgirls, they got Wayne Newton…

The 2006 Jingle Bell Run/Walk gets the way-ahead-of-time post to give you all a chance to get your sponsors lined up, raise some money, and figure out your costume. I’d suggest getting eight friends together and doing a Santa and the eight reindeer bit, and running the whole thing in formation.