Dear Readers,

I hope you had a better weekend than I did. Like many of my fellow Winnipeggers, I spent the weekend bailing out my poor basement during a torential rainstorm. The city’s catch basins overflowed, spilling grey rainwater onto my floor, at a level of about two inches. It was not fun, and The Boy and I worked like mad to save our belongings (and the dry wall). The real lowpoint was when the dryer (which we were using to dry the floodwater-soaked towels) stopped working. I couldn’t imagine paying to have it repaired on top of everything else, but thankfully it had just overheated. It later recovered, and is now working fine.

I guess another lowpoint could have been when the plumber showed up and charged me $80 to tell me that the flooding was the city’s fault, and that there was nothing he could do. He kept apologizing for having to charge me, but he didn’t seem to feel too badly about taking the money.

Needless to say, all the goals I had of writing and working out this weekend went out the window (or down the drain). Unless Jillian would give me points for all the mopping, bailing, and wringing of towels I did. (At one point, four hours worth of this work without stopping for a single break.) And with another thunderstorm expected this afternoon, my home gym could be under water. Again. At least we managed to save the treadmill.

I do have some positive news on the writing front, however. An interesting group called Women On Writing is offering a wide selection of on-line courses, and a few of them look really good. I signed up for The Gatekeeper course, and also for the one on social networking, until I realized the social networking class started last Monday. Still waiting to hear whether or not I can participate.

As you may have already noticed, I really have to get cracking in order to meet my June 30th deadline for the novel’s first draft. Writing two pages per day is not going to cut it. Thankfully, Friday was my best writing day ever, and I’m finally getting really excited about the book again.

Making the Cut: As with other exercise/meal plans I’ve tried in the past, I’ve discovered that this one doesn’t work for me. The meal plan isn’t realistic enough to fit into my life, and working out at a high intensity for hours with barely any carbohydrates makes me feel weak and miserable. I’m going to continue to do the workouts, adding a bit more cardio, until I can return to my dojo, but as for the eating plan, I’m switching to a modified Body For Life, which made a lot more sense to me.
To bed at: 10:10 p.m.
Awake at: 8:15 a.m.
Novel pages written: 4.5