Miscellaneous Crap

Went running yesterday. I've been trying to get back into running for over a month. For some reason (probably a mix of infrequent training, low carb diet, and killer heat, plus maybe just getting damned old), yesterday was the first time in this training cycle that I've been able to complete the entire 2 1/2 mile course without stopping to walk. Usually I bounce back to being able to run the entire distance after one or two break-in runs, but this time, it's taken weeks.

I saw Stan Lee's "Who Wants to Be a Superhero?" on Sci-Fi last night. I love reality shows anyway, but this one was especially fun. They had to complete a challenge by fighting off attack dogs while trying to advance 50 yards or so to a door. A couple of the guys succeeded by simply carrying the dogs (which had latched onto the sleeves of their protective garments and hung there like furry icicles). One really big guy who's a bouncer in real life carried the dogs almost all the way, then fell about a foot from hte door and quit. The women all got taken down by the dogs really quickly and quit, except for the last girl, Monkey Woman, who fought with the dogs for almost 10 minutes (!) and managed to drag herself all the way to the door and complete the task, the only one of the women to do so. Now that's a hero.

The coolest twist on the show was when they kicked the bouncer off, only to redesign his costume and turn him into a supervillain to challenge the remaining hero candidates.

I washed the "Whack a Monkey" shirt tonight. I didn't read the care tag and dried it on high instead of low. I think I shrank it, but it looks like it will still fit. I'm telling myself that I can make it to ArmadilloCon. I emailed someone today to see if I can stay with friends down there. I've also been approved for vacation days during FenCon in September, if this con doesn't work out.

The Mobile Command Center is turning out to be pretty handy. Although I bought it for use in bars, I've used it almost every day this week to write during my lunch hour. If I can turn that into a regular ritual, I'll get a lot more writing done this year than last, and finish the novel in decent time.