I ate a wonderful restaurant tonight called the Iron Hill Brewery. It’s really too bad that I didn’t discover it until tonight, because the food was excellent. It is a fairly renowned micro-brewery in this part of the country, but since I’m allergic to hops, I didn’t partake of any beer/ale. The scallops, however, were incredible.

I also have to say that I’ve finally had time to devote to Lee Stephen’s Outlaw Trigger. I’m impressed with where he takes his characters in this outing. I should finish the novel on the plane ride home, so sometime this weekend, it is my intention to do a detailed review. Don’t wait for the review though; if you want some good, clean (seriously!) military science fiction, buy Dawn of Destiny and Outlaw Trigger immediately from Amazon.

Alchemist continues to take form. The mid-February deadline is starting to seem a little more realistic every day.  I’ve spent some quality time with Jessica, the main female protagonist of the story. I’ve finally gotten my groove with her character; so far she is resonating well with my test readers, so I’ll probably leave her as-is.

It also looks as though my training session will end early enough on Friday that I will have time to go by Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell after all. Someone with my political leanings would be negligent if they didn’t at least make the effort to see the birthplace of American democracy while I was close to it. I’ll give a report on that as well this weekend.

Did McCain suddenly tighten his grip on the forefront of the Republican race while I wasn’t looking? I suppose that’s a victory for middle America, but traditional conservatives are probably terrified. Personally, I’m not sure that a moderate would be a bad thing. I also wonder if McCain at least has the political chops to defeat a strong Democrat for the office of President. Ally McCain with say, Huckabee, and they might make an unstoppable force, since you would have moderates and evangelicals in the same boat. The only ones left in the cold would be the non-populist, Ronald Reagan style conservatives.

Enough rambling. I have to get back to work.