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Nine pages today.  I finally feel like I’m making progress on SKIN TRADE again.  There’s still so much to do that I was a little intimidated where to begin.  I think this may be a first for me, to have to do the last stage of research before the first draft is finished.  On one hand, it means I don’t have to rewrite as much now that I have the correct information.  On the other hand, it means that I’m working on the rewrite sections, at the same time that I’m trying to finish.  Not good.  I finally realized today that I couldn’t do both simultaneously, so I am powering on to the end of the book with the new information.  I know how the fight scene works, and I know what part the SWAT research changes, so I can finish the book, then back track for the scenes that need changed.  That is closer to the usual method for me.  The trip being moved up three weeks threw me more than I thought it would.  I should know by now that changing anything in the process requires a learning curve.

I will be working all the holiday long.  I’ll take a few hours off, but there is no time to take a day off.  It used to bother me that I had to work Yule, but I love my job.  I want this book to be the best book it can be, and to honor the people who spoke to me, and helped me gather my facts.  I’ll be going into more of that in latter blogs.  We’ve got rain outside, and it’s right on the edge of turning to ice.  It’s supposed to be pretty nasty here over the next few days.  Ironically, we got to see Vegas in it’s eighth greatest snow fall, ever.  The city was also, twenty degrees colder than St. Louis, while we were there.  Last I checked, Vegas is now thirty degrees, edging towards forty, warmer than here.  What, we weren’t allowed to escape winter? 

I’m told that the heavy, for them, snow will make the desert bloom.  If it does, can some of you guys take pictures.  I’ve never seen the desert in bloom.  I’m told it’s spectacular, and that the snow will have things blooming that haven’t done so in years.  The moisture, plus the return to warm temperatures are what’s going to make the flowers, not the snow and the cold. 

We actually lost weight in Vegas.  I have to say I was worried because we were having to leave most of the prepared food at home.  Vegas gives you a lot of food for your money.  Big portions, everywhere we’ve ever eaten there.  Which is great value for your dollar, but tempting if you’re trying to watch what you eat.  It was very hard to find salads there; weird.  We went to some fancy resturnats, and as everyone knows fancy means they mess with your food.  That’s usually fine, but they had no such thing is just a simple green salad.  We managed to find some of the fancier salads, and watch our portion sizes on the meat and pasta.  We can have all the veggies and salad we want, but it was hard to find either in Vegas.  I know, I know, you’ll be writing in telling me all the places I could get both, but we didn’t know where to go.  We actually split a rich desert, and had food that isn’t on most diets, but the whole idea of Jenny Craig is portion control.  Control your portions and you can have that piece of cake, or slice of pie, some of the time.  Not all of the time.  Jon adds, over my shoulder, it’s about portion control and self control.  I guess in the end, most things are about self control, come to think of it.

I really thought we’d blow the food issue in Vegas, but we didn’t.  The scale in our room was on kilos.  I couldn’t for the life of me remember how to do the math from kilos to pounds, but then I realized it didn’t matter.  It didn’t matter what I weighed.  It only mattered that I didn’t gain.  So, kilos were fine.  If I went up, I watched my food more closely the next day.  Simple, and hard. 

Tomorrow I’ll talk more about some of the research we did.  Oh, wait, tomorrow is Christmas Eve, Yule for us, but we’re getting together with family, so probably a short blog tomorrow, and the research blogs won’t be short.