As it happens we trained on the significantly larger and longer set of hills at the north end of Central Park last night. It was a nice little psyche by Natalie and made the evening a fun if challenging one.

In other news John McCain wants a time-out to work on the economy. Someone needs to tell him it doesn’t work that way in the real world. Stuff happens, and keeps happening, and you don’t get time-outs just because you’re down in the polls. Did McCain ever play quarterback because he sure is tossing up a lot of Hail Mary’s these days.

…but is actually a rather clever marketing tag line if I do say so myself just happens to be the one S&S UK came up with for the book. “Ever seen an elf with a musket?” If I’d thought of that I might have used it for the title…well, maybe not, but it does catch the eyeballs. This runs along the top of a promo poster in stores in London and I am now desperate to get one.

In other news the cat returns, Cat Hill that is in Central Park. Training next week will have us huffing and puffing up and down Cat Hill (so named for the black cat statue perched halfway up on a rock) and something I am looking forward to. We did the stairs last week at Bethesda Fountain and by the end my legs were, naturally, rubber. It felt great though.

Hi, my name is Chris and I’m addicted to research.

It started innocently enough, checking a word in the dictionary then spending the next hour reading through more obscure definitions for words long lost to society at large. This was followed by field trips to used bookstores in every town I visited, spending hours with my head titled to one side as I tried to read faded spines while constantly blowing my nose from all the dust and cat hair. By the time I hit university I was mainlining special order microfilm AND microfiche. But it didn’t stop there. I needed more. Always more. Each new nugget of information was a bright shinning light illuminating yet more dark pathways unexplored. Soon I was traveling abroad to go deep into the dustiest recesses of archives, sifting through documents written in languages I couldn’t always decipher, but nonetheless was compelled to try. When I started bringing my own white cotton gloves to the P.R.O. in London I knew I’d hit rock bottom.

I’ve since gotten a life (sort of) and have a hobby (running) that gets me outdoors. Still, each day is a battle. The temptation to pick up a thick, heavy book – only for a peek, just a quick scan – is forever there.

Oh, and the fact that I am writing this from the private membership library I belong to, on a Saturday, on a fairly nice day, is not a relapse. I just come here to look at the pictures…

Ok, so I wouldn’t know a Manolo Blahnik from a Birkenstock, but I went shoe shopping today and rather enjoyed it. I was looking for a new pair of running shoes, something with just a touch more stability than my last few pairs. I’ve tried Mizuno, Nike and Brooks since I started running last year and wound up with a new pair of Mizunos today, the Wave Elixir 3s…ooooooooooooooh 🙂 At just over 9oz they’re lighter than my previous shoes and a bit lower to the ground. Hopefully they’ll do the trick. Oh, and the best part is, they come with bright red laces! I don’t think I have ever owned a pair of shoes in my life with red laces, so this is a red…letter…day…sorry.

I caught a lot of the speeches last night and while it wasn’t easy watching they were instructive. I don’t think I’ve felt that much bile rise in my throat since my bout of food poisoning and I really was fascinated to figure out what the triggers were (when not eating bad chicken). I want the reprehensible characters in my novels to elicit such strong emotion. Apparently it requires a solid base of hypocrisy, a lot of condescension (not as much condensation), fear of losing power as a driving force, anger, arrogance, a swagger predicated on bullying and a general attitude of belittling anything or anyone you don’t like or understand. Soooo, I just need to channel Rudy and I’ve got it 🙂 Oh, and lies. Lie early, lie loudly, and lie often. Embrace your lies and come to believe them.

Thank you television, and thank you Republican Convention. Now I need to disinfect my tv before I watch something wholesome, like Gossip Girl.