Oh well, yesterday I was really all set to blow off another day. There were finger foods at the track and little cakes and things. There was also curry and vegetable stew though (this was in the foreign press room where I went to eat). I'm in the Japanese press room and we got nothing! but because it was an international race the foreign newspeople got something....tee-hee. I am a scavenger....Oh, and the spread in the owner's box was enormous. I snuck in there to try to watch the race from there and get the reaction afterward but got kicked out by some slimy American who works for the racing association here and lords it over everyone with his petty bureaucratic power......
Ok, enough of the babble. It's the extra sleep I got, the caffeine in the morning coffee and my runny nose.....glad to be back with you all, will do a catchup in increments....working back in the posts...Fish -- Moving right along I see, working up to 10, then knocked back to 9. Hmm. Still, it's progress on the original 5 you were doing, right? Good going...hmmm...another no-alcohol challenge in the making. Seems we got a lot of that. I still find it hard to believe that anything so NOT filling has no many calories in it...
curly -- Thanks for the big red encouragement.
By the way, though, what's the "er" in the "Get 'er done." Get it done? Get her done? Is this Maryland dialect or possibly a bit of Alabama slang you're studying up on? This puzzled me before but I didn't ask. Clue this clueless one in, please! And congrats to you for getting through yet another challenge 
.... you are really our star challenger! 
marbleflys -- just where did your name come from anyhow? I've seen lots of flies, but no marble ones..hmm...perplexing....So, congrats on Day 6 down. I am jealous of all the exercise talk around here. It seems I can't make much of a dent in my body unless I throw myself on the weights at the gym or go all out on the treadmill, neither of which I've been able to do in weeks. It's hard to take any bit of free time I have and use it to do yet more "work" and face it, this kind of work is much harder than any of the other kind. Jeez, sounds like the date is someone who would get a polite, but chilled response from me the next time he decided to mozy around. Who do these guys think they're dealing with?! Certainly, no one they're capable of charming, that's for "$"#&%
"%"#$"$ sure! He's definitely out of his league here! But, like you said, could be called an excuse to get the nails done. There is a purpose for all! 
friends --
on Day 12 in the bag! Wow, what is this? 12 lbs gone?!?!? Fantastic! Sure wish those headaches would stop. Must be the sugar withdrawal. It can, apparently, cause some people to go into a fetal position from the pain of it! Glad it didn't do much to me. In fact, now when I do eat sugar, I feel like I was knocking back pints the night before at a crazy pace! (even when I wasn't!! )Well, no more time now. More catchup will have to wait till later....Keep up all your good work, people!
- apart from forgetting breakfast this morning and having to buy some. 
They have a habit of catching up with you given half a chance. But I just scraped with the points. 
Yeah. And "clueless" is okay!!! We accept ALL types. And boy, do we have some types here! 
As for now, i wish you all well. 
Is racing a year round thing in Japan, or is it seasonal?