I'm on it

Excellent book progress. I have not found a way to time-travel, but I'm getting it done. Ever since I named my anxiety "JoJo" she/he/it has disappeared. I'm sure JoJo will be back, but now I'm ready.

On the training front, I'm on week 4 of upper body/core and ab strengthening via P90X - I hate it, but I love it, so Bring it. (insider joke for any P90X'ers out there)
Why? Because I hurt my back twice this year, so obviously I need some core strengthening.

We're off to freaking Mt Washington again, and I'm pretty sure E tricked me into it. We were supposed to go to Franconia, but through some odd twist of events completely out of E's control (so he claims) we HAVE to go to Mt Washington. GRRRR

Quick reminder of my last trip to Mt Washington with E: click here and scroll down to "As bad as it looks."

That Mt Washington experience also prompted one of the best K/E difference explanations ever, courtesy of an anonymous commenter (Sgt. Yahoo):

"Remember: E*** is only happy when he's straining against the envelope. He's also had years and years to develop the mental and physical stamina to get him right to the edge, where the fragile grip of life gives way to the brittle touch of death. -70? Howling winds? I doubt he saw it that way;

What he saw was a dark, hooded figure looming on the ice wall, beckoning to him with a crooked finger, the promise of secret knowledge gained only at the terrible cost of life wagered, and this drove him mad to test his limits and he hacked his way up that wall with his Sasquatch ice picks and cratered the wall with his Ice Fang boots until he got to the summit and looked around and wondered where, in all the excitement, his babe had gone.

Why, she was nice and snuggling around a toasty fire, popping mini-egg rolls and reading about long-haired, barbarian men, with arms like tree trunks and pects like tank armor, who carry their women off to tropical paradises where the women give way to worshiping their hero, usually at their feet, where the moment is invariably captured by a passing artist forever on an easel.

VERY different views on what makes a relaxing weekend I think."

I DO like mini egg rolls, and yet here I go again with freaking Rock CruncherX boots.
Apparently I'm Charlie Brown with Lucy and the football. AARGH

Enjoy your Labor Day weekend.

I'm going for a Cheetah approach

Kilimanjaro is a snow-covered mountain 19,710 feet high, and is said to be the highest mountain in Africa. Its western summit is called by the Masai "Ngàje Ngài," the House of God. Close to the western summit there is the dried and frozen carcass of a leopard. No one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude.

— Ernest Hemingway, "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," first published in Esquire (August 1936)

I don't particularly care for that short story. Too bitter for my taste. Yes, yes I get the leopard and hyena symbolism - yes, he's a genius, but still TSK is not my favourite of his stories.

In the third installment of my apparent fascination with Hemingway, I will soon be off to another of "his" places: Mt Kilimanjaro. I won't be hunting big game, but I will be climbing the mountain while there are still a few small bits of glacier left, going on safari during Wildebeest migration season, and then off to Zanzibar where E and I are having trouble deciding exactly what we want to do - we've already overshot our budget, so Zanzibar is suffering. We'll definitely make an effort to go diving - the Indian Ocean! It's supposed to be gorgeous and shark-infested.

I have all of my shots and we're more or less ready to go. I'm all about training and shopping - like the cheetah I want to look good and look like I could outrun a predator if necessary, thus making it unnecessary and allowing me to spend my days lounging and sunning myself.

What? oh, riight.. that book I'm writing when I'm not working to pay for fancy vacations, training for fancy vacations or on a fancy vacation. Um, well, I've set a goal for myself to finish it using some magical time expansion method before leaving for Tanzania. I want to be able to start something new for NaNoWriMo 2008. Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro will seem easy in comparison...

E. is also training in part by winning the Laurentian Rogaine this past Saturday. Even after somehow incorrectly mixing his electrolyte-replacement drink, making it undrinkable and making him nauseous, dehydrated and suffering for the last 4 hours of the 8-hour race, he and Speedy still won. Freaking E.