I'm not sure if you've seen it, but Linda Howard briefly discussed the trouble she's been having with her work due to her health issues on Facebook. I'm not surprised that less than good health can affect one's creativity and productivity and everything else so much. It doesn't even have to be something hormonal. Even something as non-specific as chronic pain can bring on numerous problems and kill productivity.

When little aches here and there let themselves known, I used to just forge ahead until my body went on a massive strike. It did for two months soon after I signed with Agent. It did again last year. After two devastating battles that lasted five months total, I've decided I cannot win against my own body. So these days I try to be kinder to myself, even though it's very hard, especially because I never used to have joint pain. My first instinct is usually to flog myself for being lazy or whiny or something.

So what do I do when I feel achy or fatigued? I allow myself a very short nap and half an hour of stretching. On top of that, I see my physical therapist at least twice a week to keep my joints in working shape. And I eat fresh fruit and vegetables every day. I should exercise more regularly as well, but one thing at a time.

What do you do to keep yourself healthy?

In the last two weeks I thought I'd read and relax, but none of that happened. Instead I got sucked into an epic historical drama with awesome larger-than-life characters, and I couldn't bring myself to read anything afterward. It's disappointing, but basically 007 Dukes and so on that I had on my TBR just lost their appeal.

I'm sure my appetite for them will return by the end of the summer at the latest.

How's your August so far?

I'm the master of stealth…

Oh…crap! I'm stuck! How do I get outta here again…?

Oh wait! Forget water. I feel the presence of the Hand from the Sky. (Hand from the Sky = hamster's understanding of generous human hands that give him treats…)

I'm here! Food, food! Gimme gimme gimme!

Last week was just not my week. In chronological order:

• Some sandals that used to be comfortable suddenly gave me four really bad blisters on Monday after ten minutes of walking.
• I had the most horrific neck pain plus a nasty migraine for four consecutive days.
• I had a severe allergic reaction to food that had never given me trouble previously.
• Almost got hit by a truck — twice — on my way to the grocery store (10 minute bike ride each way).
• Fell and cut my wrist — if the cut had been deeper I might've bled to death.
• Kuro passed away.
• My computer died for no reason that I can think of, and I couldn't work my mojo to fix it. So I had to do a clean reinstall. Thankfully I was able to save all my data.
• My left forearm became swollen and inflamed for no apparent reason.
• Emails I sent didn't reach any of the recipients.
• My post-clean-reinstall computer died again yesterday. I couldn't save it, so I had to do another clean reinstall (no data lost at least).

OTOH — I finished reading two books and was able to wrap up Step 2 in my revision process. So now I'm ready to make the changes to the soft copy.

Anyway, this is a brand new week. So hopefully whatever evil Murphy's Law cloud is gone.

How was your week? (Hope it was better than mine!)

On Thursday July 15 at around 3:30 a.m. Japan Time, Kuro passed away.

In many ways, he was a very special hamster. He was not only my first pet along with Shiro, but he was also affectionate, curious and adventurous.

Out of all the hamsters we've had, he's the one who managed to escape the most. The first time it happened, he kicked a pile of sand into a dune, climbed over a cage wall and landed on top of an open bag of sunflower seeds. Since Hero Material and I were both asleep, we didn't realize what had happened until the next day…when we found a little bits of shells all over the living room. With several hours of liberty, Kuro even managed to get into the kleenex and made himself a lovely nest under the couch.

Another time he got out and crawled inside a sub-woofer speaker through a hole near the bottom. He couldn't quite get out on his own, so we had to feed a belt into the hole to give him something to climb out on.

When Shiro became very ill and lost a lot of weight, she became rather stinky due to wet tail symptoms. Kuro never refused to share his warmth with Shiro. He always welcomed her into the nest and let her lie on top of him, which seemed to make her feel better.

Before Kuro took his last breath, he held Hero Material's finger in farewell and affection. I think it was his way of saying don't be sad because Hero Material was crying. We both knew Kuro wouldn't be alive the next day.

We buried Kuro near Shiro, under a willow tree, so they can be together again.

I hope he's in hamster heaven with Shiro where there is plenty of delicious food and lots of amazing places for him to explore.

Manop thought we ought to go to Tiger Kingdom after Maesa Elephant Camp. We weren't sure at first, but since it was on the way back to the city, we decided to stop by. Besides we were getting hungry, and Tiger Kingdom has a restaurant.

It's a bit pricey to get inside Tiger Kingdom. I think it's because it costs so much to keep the tigers well-fed. None of the tourists want to end up as tiger meat, you know…

The first cage you see is that of some tropical birds. I was confused at first because I was expecting TIGERS!

But you see…they were around…just hidden…

We went to the younger tigers' cage first. That's me rubbing a seven month-old tiger. He was in bliss. (Stay that way…good kitty!)

Hero Material sorta fell asleep…

Then the tigers fell asleep… It was just, you know, too exciting for words.

We decided to leave them alone and moved to a cage with older tigers. They were almost two years old IIRC.

This one didn't like it that Hero Material kept touching its ass, but I think he gave up on humans leaving him alone.

Satisfied tiger after he ate my hand….

(Just kidding! LOL. No tiger has ever bitten me. Just that darned shark a few years back…!)

And now, preeeeeeesenting….Spicy Sausage! (I kid you not. That's really his name…)

This is Hero Material and me with Meatball. (Yeah…this poor thing got named Meatball…)

And here's one of the cubs from Tiger Kingdom. Isn't he adorable? :wub:

Afterward, we decided to get lunch. This is the view from our table.

Manop asked us if we wanted to do anything else, but after tigers and elephants we were too tired. So we returned to the hotel instead to rest. Ahh….air conditioned room…I miss you so.

At around dinner time we decided to roam the streets around our hotel. We found a guy who made cool decorative hangings with metal.

Then we went to a cashmere store. Everything there was hand-made. Check this beautiful scarf out! I'm not holding two scarves in the picture. It's just one — but folded so you can see how it looks different on each side.

Hero Material bought me a pink one. :wub:

(It's creased in the picture, and that's my fault because I left it folded for too long…)

We also found a hilarious T-shirt shop.

Finally…a seafood restaurant! Look how huge this prawn is! And the lobster too!

That's our dinner. Grilled fresh king prawns. Only $6 for the plate.

Finally our dessert…! We had pineapple & mango smoothies. They were super sweet and delish! I've never had a smoothie this nice before. The largest one was only $2, but I didn't want something that large, so I got a small one, while Hero Material indulged in the super sized version. It's a good thing we don't live in Thailand, because we'd probably become diabetic.

Coming next: Day 7 — temples and wishes…oh my…!