For those of you asking to see it, don�t count on it. This is a colossal piece of crap that I�m finishing merely because I want to participate in this madness. Starting next week, I�ll attend the meet-ups at various bars and bookstores across the city.

I�m at the point where I�m seriously going to do an MS Word find for all apostrophes and see how many contractions I can break into two words instead of one. Then I�ll move on to hyphens to change multi-word adjectives into words that actually count. (For instance, �mother in law� counts and three words, but �mother-in-law� counts as one.�) Grammar and punctuation police be damned, I just want my word count to increase.

One upside to all of the NaNo madness is that I�m productive as all get-out when you look at what all I�ve done to avoid writing the stinkin� book.

The laundry is all done. The dishes are washed and the sink shines. The tub and shower are both scrubbed with Ajax. Both toilets smell like lavender cleaning solution. All trash bins are empty and have fresh liners in them. The fridge is cleaned out. The bed is made. The floor is swept. I put two cheer-up packages together to mail to friends. I wrote a couple letters. I�ve been through 18 CDs of video and photos that my family has sent me over the past few months but I�ve been to busy to really go through completely.

I�ve also started back to the gym since I don�t want to write and since running seems to aggravate my knee post-marathon. (All I have to run on here is a treadmill or concrete. One is pretty zzzzzz, and the other is the roughest material for running.) Yesterday I did cardio kickboxing and followed it up with an abs class and a yoga class. (Am I the only one with no interest in yoga whatsoever? Certainly not.)

Today I took off mid-day and went to a class called Cardio Challenge. The instructor taught two combos and then combined them. Then she taught another two and combined those. Then we put everything together. Then we mixed it all up with some turns thrown in for fun.

So, yeah. I�ve not exactly been sitting on my ass instead of writing.

Yesterday, in an attempt to keep myself focused on the book, I temporarily cancelled Netflix. They�ll start back up on December 1st with my account, and I hope to finish it up as soon as possible after then. There are 16 movies in my queue, so I�ll be a movie-watching fool for only a little while longer. After that, I�ll feel as if I�m all caught up on pop culture stuff and can cancel for real that time and then restart it after another few years when I�m way behind again.

So what�s up for the weekend? Right after work I�m meeting up with a friend for smoothies. It�s usually beer for the two of us, but working out the past two days makes me not want to be around smoke.

I�m seriously about to lose it with smokers while I walk around downtown Chicago. Outside of every single friggin� building, there are herds of smokers congregating. I wish they�d huddle closer together so I could zoom quickly by them while breathing out. (Have you also noticed that when you hold your breath, you still smell cig smoke?) I really just have no patience with smokers right now, but what are my options? Don�t leave the house? Ugh.

Okay, I just got an email from my friend telling me that I�m outta my friggin� mind if I want to go out for smoothies. Now I have to find a restaurant with some beer so she can drink beers and I can have whatever else I can find.

After that get-together, I think I�m going to the gay film festival to Oz, but nothing�s been confirmed. We�ll see how that goes.

If nothing works out, I�ll just go home to up my word count and find some more things to clean while avoiding my laptop. Both Saturday and Sunday are reserved for Benito since I can�t really get enough of that man.

Have a good weekend, all. �