Since last we spoke...

...not a whole hell of a lot has happened.

I transferred from my excruciatingly boring National Guard assignment doing surveillance to a much, much more interesting and fun National Guard assignment as a criminal analyst. I actually work about 20% more hours, but beyond that, life is sooooo much better than it was before. Actually, the 20% longer workweek is not really much of an issue, since I really enjoy what I do, and love my co-workers. It's actually a pleasure to go into the office Monday through Friday, and I am learning a lot and feel like I'm actually accomplishing something, so that's great.

I continue to read a lot. Last month I read 9 books on Rwanda, and though I've slowed down the pace considerably in September, I'm continuing to turn the pages. I've got another book or two to go on Rwanda, and then I'll move on to the Congo. I always suspected that Africa was a fascinating place (and, let's be honest, most places are fascinating if you have a sufficiently curious nature), but I've really gotten wrapped up in it. It's nice to learn things that are completely new to me. I feel smarter and smarter every day.

Since I absolutely suck at this blogging thing, I feel like I should pace myself a bit, so I'm about to wrap this up. I have signed up for a couple upcoming races (a 5-miler in Sunland Park next Sunday and then a 10K at the end of October). There's only so much prep-time available for the 5-miler, so I'm not really sweating that one too much. I'm setting a not-so-ambitious goal of a 37 minute finish time for that one. I am, however, going to start an honest to god six-week training program for the 10K, which is something I have never done in my life. I've run a couple 10Ks, but never actually trained for one, so to speak. I'll probably use that as some kind of motivation to blog. You know, tracking my progress and all.

Hopefully, the act of putting pen to paper (or putting my fingers to the keys, as it were) regarding the training will lead to writing here about other things too, though I am highly skeptical.

TTFN