Like Jim Anchower, it’s been a while since I rapped at ya.  There are various reasons for this, not least being the attempt to pull off a NaNoWriMo in July.  Several friends joined me, which was cool, although attrition is beginning to take its toll.  I’m working on the sequel to The Curse of Troius right now, and I’m over 23k words into it.  I’m having fun and liking it, and 50k written (or more) in July will go a long way towards getting me to finish.  It’s tentatively entitled The Siege of Anticus, although I’ve been toying with Northreach Besieged lately.  We’ll see.  I hate trying to make titles for things.

In other news, the weight-loss and fitness venture Lady Aravan and I are undertaking is going well.  She’s kicking ass, over 15 pounds down, and I think I’m at about 11 pounds lost, which makes me happy, plus I’ve really been hitting the weights.  My goal is for 185 with the ability to do 100 pushups in a row by Labor Day.  It’ll be close, I’m thinking.  Jillian Michaels kicks my ass every morning, and weights at lunch 5 days a week, plus more on the weekends.  I see a big difference in both of us, which really helps at 5 am when the ass-kicking begins.

We’ve revamped most of the contents of our kitchen, getting rid of plastics and purging out most of the food that has preservatives and chemicals.  We are down to pretty much all BPA-free stuff, and we bought a lot of organic foods this past weekend.  I always looked down my nose at the organic section, personally, dismissing it as a bunch of hippie-crap.  Then I tried it.  Holy shit.  I had no idea what strawberries were supposed to taste like.  And the milk!  We got fat-free organic milk, and it tastes like whole milk.  I can’t wait to try the organic whole milk.  It’ll probably taste like whipping cream.  Much like the beef from Herman’s, apparently quality and natural food makes a big difference, even if it is more expensive.

That’s about it, really.  Going to bed at 9 in order to get up at 5 cuts into my day, but I feel worlds better physically.  Just need to pump out this novel, hit my Labor Day goal, and enjoy the shit out of life every day.  It’s the first day of the rest of your life.  Don’t fuck it up.