While the Necro Monkey is still busy working on the first draft of Gerald and the Rat, the planning of the story has led to the foundations for a few more of Gerald’s adventures.  The first being a prequel dealing with the first time Gerald came across something unnatural.  This will lead into a second prequel explaining how Gerald ends up with his most power pest fights tool.  Stories after the two prequels will follow Gerald and the Rat and will focus on new adventures and maybe some things coming back frmo his past. 

Here is the line-up so far:

Gerald and the Rat
Gerald and the Camel Spider
Gerald and the Pestisnomicon
Gerald and the Mutant Ants
Gerald and the Shanda

The nomicon is the book of law and the necro-nomicon is the book of law of the dead. What would you call a book that is over things like demon rats, mutant ants, and vampire ants? The pestisnomicon.  A book that just so happens to be in the possession of Gerald, your not so typical exterminator.

The book will make its first appearance in Gerald and the Rat.  Though I guess this is a bit of a spoiler.

My exercising is on hold for a few days and I am thinking of just starting over from day 1 with P90X.  I pulled something in my abdominal wall and it made it painful to exercise.  It concerned me mostly because the pain in a little above a hernia scar I had surgery for when I was younger.  So instead of just giving it a couple of days and push on, I decided to give it at least a week and make sure things were better.  Since I am taking so much time off I will just take the opportunity to alter the workout routine and start over.

After 14 P90X workouts days, I am actually closer to 10 actual days. 

The days that I do weight training (chest/back, shoulders/arms, and legs/backs), I do complete with the exception of getting 100% of the way through the Ab Ripper X workouts.  I am going to increase the weight I am using on these days and lower the amount of reps to try and promote muscle mass and strength.  I am still not liking the Ab Ripper X routine.  I am seriously looking and replacing some of the exercises in the ab routine.  Maybe include some actually sit-ups or crunches. 

The other three days of working out are some type of cardio.  I have some issue with the amount of jumping around since I live on the fourth floor and have people living under us that I could end up upsetting.  Plus I don’t feel like I am getting the kind of cardio workout I would get from running or something like that.  I am going to look at getting an elliptical machine for the cardio days and maybe alternate running in there from time to time. 

On a side note, I have come to the conclusion I am not doing pushups correctly.  When I do pushups, I experience a lot of lower back pain.  This makes me believe it is my form.  I also can’t do pullups.  Not that I have any real place to do them since I use a bar that goes in the door frame and that I am over six feet. 

At least I am still working out on a somewhat regular basis.

I still won’t say that I like working yet, I am not dreading it as much.  I bought a program that helps me track my workouts and see what I have done so I can set new goals the next time I do the same workout.  I will actually post something later on the program I am using. 

Tracking my exercise progress aside, I am making progress slowly, but surely.  As this is the second week of P90X, I am repeating the routines I did during the first week.  I ended up increasing the weight I have been using by 5lbs and have been able to do the same if not more reps.  I am glad to make progress even though I don’t “see” the results.

On a side note, yesterday (Day 9), I started taking kre-alkalyn before and after my workouts.  Kre-alkalyn is like super creatine which helps build muscle mass and strength without the bloating and other issues people have experienced with creatine.