This weekend I’ll be heading off on a grueling backpacking trip with a friend who has been training diligently on stairclimbers while wearing full pack. I have been doing the occasional uphill hike with a small pack. Guess who is going to be carrying whom 10 miles *up* on the way out? Mwahahahahahahahahahahahahaha But at least I got myself a nifty off-brand Camelbak-type-thingy for the journey. And some freeze dried curry. Heh.

We are hoping that the gummint doesn’t shut down in the meantime. National parks, yo. Come on Gang of Six, we’re rooting for you!

Testing for first stripe on the new Black Belt sometime over the next month. Have to teach myself three forms, five double nunchuk forms and six techniques for the bo staff before then. Small potatoes. In 3 years, when I test for second degree, I’m going to have to break a freakin’ *brick* with my *hand*.

Some villain work on Left Hand has resulted in a third POV character. I groaned at the extra work, but already it’s starting to weave itself together beautifully, and I can tell that it’s going to be a much better book. It’s amazing how quickly it goes now that I actually have some idea of what I’m doing now.

Have promised a submission-ready draft by June of next year. That gives me about 63 weeks. Cut it in half to finish the current draft = 30 weeks = ~ 7.5 months = 210 days (so by mid November).

I’ve got ~13K words written so far. To get the remaining ~63K words done, I need to do 300 words/day or 2100 words/week.

Which would make me all kinds of pathetic if I couldn’t keep up with that. This being said, I hope that figuring that out won’t let my work ethic think it has a license to slack.

APD is coming out in 2 months and change. I’m doing the gleeful dance over here, even though you can’t see me.