In the martial arts, one of the objectives is to be 'round.' That doesn't mean fat--I think the only martial art where fat helps is Sumo wrestling. What it means is that you're smooth and when you fall, you can roll.

Today, I felt all corners. I somehow managed to hurt myself in fencing (a freak accident) yesterday. Today, although the weather wasn't that cold (50s) all of my joints felt stiff and didn't want to move. Of course that meant we worked on grappling in my Tae Kwon Do class. I was thinking about doing it anyway until I learned we were doing it on our knees. My knees are definitely all corners today and I wasn't sure I could survive that.

It's interesting to think about how being round can help, though. If you listen to someone tumbling, you can tell the good tumbler from the not-so-good by the sound. If they're round, the only sound you hear is the swish of fabric. Being round in a fight means that you roll with punches, and that you move with pressure rather than pushing back against it. I'll have to spend some time thinking about other ways that being round would help--and even more time figuring out ways to get more round. Stretching helps, but we always stretch before class and it didn't help enough.

I'm continuing on my readthrough/sexification of the dragon book and I still haven't figured out how to get Serenity and Mason into bed--except in a dream sequence. I was sure I'd be able to do it and I'm a bit frustrated at their lack of progress on the consumation front. Perhaps tomorrow, as I ride the train to bridge, I'll figure out a way to get them into bed (or wherever else the action might happen).

What do you think about Romney abandoing the campaign. I never really figured why he wanted to run except that he though he deserved to be president. I wish it weren't true that anyone who would take the job is someone you need to be suspicious about.

I'm going to make HOT PROPERTY by Karen Leabo the www.BooksForABuck.com book of the day. A professional shopper is accused of aiding a jewel thief. Even worse, the detective who arrests her has a natural fear of shoppers--his ex-wife left him broke from her spending. Still, the sexual tension runs hot between them. Only $1 for the complete eNovel. Learn more, read the FREE excerpt, or buy the entire eNovel here: www.booksforabuck.com/rompages/rom_2004/hot_property.html. (Available in HTML, Adobe Acrobat PDF, Palm Reader/eReader and (zipped) Microsoft Reader formats). Here's the cover (cover design by Karen Leabo):

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