I always promised some of my friends that if I ever went public with my blog, that I\’d give them a little free advertising. So here goes:

For the best cup of coffee in Madison, head over to Indie Coffee on Regent Street and say hi to JJ and Barrett. Get yourself a waffle and a cup of coffee and mooch off their wireless internet.

In fact, they also have live shows by national acts there from time to time, and they\’re usually free. There\’s a Portland, Oregon band named Horse Feathers that I had in my Top 5 CDs of the year list last year, and they\’re going to be at Indie this Thursday night at 8. I\’m fired up for the show, and it\’s free-ninety nine.

So come on down, enjoy some coffee and tunes, and know that you\’re sticking it to Halliburton in the process.

Also, until now I\’ve been afraid to say anything, but I noticed that you\’ve been putting on a little weight. Fortunately for you, I have the perfect remedy – grab yourself a Piladio video from my former co-worker Valerie, who left our office on a mission to give you rock hard abs. It\’s a mix of pilates and cardio, and it guarantees that you will never look like me (I have offered to be the \”before\” model in her next commercial).

For a preview, click here – and be prepared to drop a few pounds just by watching the video.

And finally, a buddy of mine told me about Lala.com, which is a service that allows you to trade CDs via mail with people across the country. If you have CDs piling up that you never listen to, you can trade them for CDs that you want for $1.75 per disc (75 cents of that is postage).

Basically, you go on line and list the CDs you want to get rid of. If someone has requested one of them, you ship it to them in the prepaid envelopes they give you and get credit for one CD. Then, when someone has a disc you want, they ship it to you. Pretty simple, and you can\’t beat the price.

So there you go – the economy\’s humming along, so you have the money to spend. What else are you going to spend it on – going to see a movie about having sex with horses?

(An irrefutable argument – I should have gone to law school.)