That's it. We are REALLY SERIOUS now. We are walking ONE MILLION STEPS A DAY to get in shape for the walkathon this October.

Well, maybe not a full million. But we really are pumping it up. With only four months to go until the 3-Day, we need to be in better shape than we are. Thus, we're taking a lot more Jamba walks (4 miles) and Parcourse walks (6 miles) during the week, and every Sunday we do the Palo Alto hike (12.5 miles) plus a LOT of time (Monday, Wednesday, Saturday) in the climbing gym. We're even working on a little reward system where extra milage during the week earns us 'treat points' to get fun little goodies like: "one guilt-free candy bar" or "the other person has to do the cat's shot this time".

The bookstore tour was awesome. We went to five stores and signed tons of books. It got a lot easier after the first time, though my hand still shakes a bit every time I get ready to sign. The store managers were all willing to put the book on display in the fronts of the stores (with 'Autographed Copy' or 'Local Author' stickers) so this weekend we'll do a stealth repeat of the tour and see how many copies have sold.

We were going to add another two bookstores yesterday, but got tired and decided to order in sushi and watch 'Frontier House' instead.

We went to the Giants game last night (BEAT LA!) and bought rubber chickens to wave around when the other team intentionally walks Barry. Very fine. And today Tony is staying home to escort me to about a million bookstores to do signings. Also very fine.

If only my stomach didn't feel as though it was full of jungle rot. Not so fine.

5:30AM:

Rrow. Rrow. RRRRROWWWW. Rrow. Rrow. RRROWW. Rrowwwwwwwwwww. Rrow. Rrow. Rrow. RRROWWW. Rrrrrrroww. Rrow. Rrow. Rrow. Rrow. Rrow. RROOWWWW. Rrow.

Stupid cat does this every time Tony travels. Argh!

Tony is in LA today pitching a game proposal for a Huge and Very Exciting License that I am Not Allowed to Disclose... darn it. He's staying overnight, and tomorrow he'll be visiting the CSI:Miami folks before flying home.

I'm spending my time pathologically watching for the mailman, who STILL has not delivered my NCSF certificate. Not that I'm impatient or anything. Not me.

So today, as we're driving home, a red truck comes screaming toward us going at least 60... just as a flock of geese and goslings were parading across the street. He never slowed down. The geese scattered in every direction, but one was hit, and its legs were still kicking madly when we pulled up to it and saw it was decapitated.

So we chased the red truck, saw where it parked, got the license number and called the police. We don't know what happened after that, of course, other than that they were "sending an officer right away."

I think he should rot.

My two little sisters are graduating high school today! CONGRATULATIONS Dani and Sami! You're on your way to great things.

In other news: signs of life in Tony's computer. It involved taking out a network card (which seemed to have been sending a 'sleep' command) and removing the CMOS battery long enough to let the power drain completely. Everything isn't perfect yet but we're a lot happier than when we thought we'd have to buy an entirely new machine.

I PASSED!

I did it I did it I did it ... I passed my personal trainer certification exam!!!!

I took the NCSF exam and it was hella hard. HELLA hella hard. But I passed, I made it, I did it, I got my score and PASSED PASSED PASSED.

Whew.

Tony's computer has UP and DIED. Or, rather, the power button has died and therefore we can't turn it on. The problem is literally the button, not the power supply, which is bad news because the button has to be special-ordered from Dell and blah blah blah.

So, that sucks. And dealing with Dell's technical support -- which is still based in India -- sucks even worse. (Disclaimer: India itself is fine. Technical support agents who don't know jack about computers, have unintelligible accents, leave you on hold for 5-10 minutes at a time while they look up 'power supply', and then disconnect your call while trying to transfer you to the parts department are NOT fine.)

Yes, we are demented.

I couldn't convince Tony to play hookey and come see Harry Potter with me tomorrow morning, so we're seeing it tonight instead. At 12:10 am.

(When he has to get up at 7, we'll see if he changes his mind about hookey.)

More ups and downs. On the one hand, some lousy (but not dangerous) medical news for both of us -- within two days of one another -- has rocked the boat around here. Health issues SUCK. And it's not just us. Two friends with breast cancer, several others with this awfulness or that stressfulness or the other yuckiness. It's scary and not fun and makes you feel old and helpless and way too mortal.

On the other hand, we just had the GPS installed in the new Jeep. My life is changed forever. Seriously. I used to be the person who Always Gets Lost. I never wanted to drive anywhere new or far, because it was inevitiable that I would get Very Very Lost -- turning left instead of right, going south instead of east, you name it. But now I can drive anywhere, anytime. Always Gets Lost is gone forever. Yay.