OK. Almost to the end of my tennis experimentation. Two hand backhand with eastern forehand grip. Two hand forehand with semiwestern grip for topspin and slice. Attempting to hit volleys with both hands on racquet in eastern forehand grip. Overheads... I dunno. Maybe eastern forehand. Serves... down to messing with the serve. Experimenting with eastern backhand grip (almost) on the serve.

I've been successfully running 1/2 intervals (60 secs fast/120 secs slow). In the past my right knee couldn't handle this. In general potentially hard on the body. With short very controlled strides I've been ok for a week or two now.

Trying to eat applesauce every morning for breakfast (heated). Been doing so for almost a month now or so I think. Finally found a way to eat fruit. Having just rice, peas and tomato sauce usually for lunch. For dinner I eat out (indian, burritoes/fries, etc) or have good bread toasted with hummus or tomato sauce, or Amy's burritoes, or rice and beans/peas. In other words starting to truly eat healthy. Completely sworn off cheese which causes migraines for me (along with cancer and cardiovascular disease). And being careful of foods with preservatives (migraines). So really eating healthy finally. No salty chips (migraines/kidney stones). No chocolate (migraines). Not too much sugar (migraines). Thanks to migraines I eat healthy now! And I don't get migraines anymore it seems.

Zone One by Colson Whitehead
Recommended by Christopher Buehlman. Called pretentious by hundreds of amazon reviewers. Zombie apocalapse(sp). Not much of a story. Got distracted 52% in and forgot about it. Not sure I'll bother finishing. The main character is dull.

The Better Angels of our Nature by Steven Pinker
We're getting less violent he says. His evidence is convincing. He belabors the point. Stopped 25%. Should skim ahead as it very well could get interesting again.

Went to a book thing in Gaithersburg, MD. Just happened to be there for something else. I loved it. But these things are always so far away and I didn't love it quite enough to drive 4 hours just for it. Maybe someday when Hawthy is older I'll see about any in Pittsburgh... Anyway there must have been 100 published authors there. Only one fantasy fiction guy I think (not counting the children's area). Aire. I got a sample on kindle. It has the memorable line. "'Grandmother', said Annie's granddaughter." And so on.

But I did enjoy listening to this one lady who writes teen fiction go on and on. J did too. Got me wanting to write again. But I haven't. Was so hot though so we left early worried it was bad for Hawthy.

Steven Erikson's Malazan series.
Held off for the silly reason that I didn't want to read military fantasy fiction. Well maybe it wasn't so silly though. The first book is very inventive. Tattersail with her cards. What his name getting his soul but in a wooden doll. Moon's Spawn. But it goes a little overboard with powerful wizards popping up everywhere at the end. And no one person is quite likable enough. Paran almost. But not really. Book two isn't as good but supposedly it picks up again.

So after all these years I think that's it for S. Unless she makes an amazing and sudden turnaround. I became friends with her sister and my wife had a baby. Not sure if it was just one of these things or both. They both coincide with a very sudden and strange change in her behavior. Well I shouldn't say so strange. I've seen her act like this with other people. Why do I pick out the one person who I've ever seen manage to get fired as a hospital orderly? Why do I do this? Is it just that I'm attracted to broken people? That I want to fix them/help them? Or J wonders, do I want "friends" that I can feel superior to/have power over? It's definitely worth thinking about, but I really don't think the latter is the case.

I think perhaps part of it is that everyone is either boring or crazy and I keep choosing crazy. At least J is boring instead of crazy.

It does depress me that she did this. There doesn't seem to be anything I can do about it. But then, it's nice not to worry abut people who keep trying to start shit with me also. I don't think I'm going to choose to hang out with any more crazy people. But as one gets older it gets harder and harder to make any new friends. Not sure I'll every make any more.