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Naturally, it's hard to get to the gym while traveling, so I do what I can to attempt to maintain the less than spectacular shape that I'm currently in. Without an elliptical ready and waiting, that means hitting some kind of running trail. I have to admit that I hate running in San Francisco because where I live, it's just lights and hills. Staying on the edge of the town limit of Figueres though, there are more options, such as:              This is a fortress up on a hill that is called, Castell de Sant Ferran. It is a weird place, because as you jog around it, you don't see anything of the interior but the walls. If you attempt to peer in there through the gates, you can see that there are a great number of buildings inside the walls. The fortress could house 6,000 men with 500 horses and 9 million liters of water in its storage tanks. Not bad for a structure built in the mid 18th century.       For a long time after it stopped being a protective barricade against the French, it was a major prison and these days, it still is with a smaller inmate population. With the brief glance I saw, it doesn't appear to be the place that anyone would want to spend any time. From inside, you can't see any of the incredible view that surrounds the fortress being that it's up on a hill where you can see all the way out to the Mediterranean. Because of this view though, it's quite popular with walkers and runners. No, I didn't suddenly come up with the idea that the trail around the moat would be a great running spot. People in Figueres have been using it ever since the military released some control of the place. It's a good distance of 5km (bit over two miles in metric-so-scary-land) and it's relatively flat which makes for a lot easier running.       Anyways, just something I had to share with everyone who finds themselves in Figueres and needs a running spot; all two of you.

Right about now, you're probably wondering, "Why oh why did I eat that third slice of pie?" Maybe not. But as is usually the case, most folks start to think about the pounds this time of year. I know that I've put on a couple in recent weeks, but that's mostly due to this damned cold. It's hard to have a coughing fit while working the eliptical.       Finally though, I have made it to the gym again and some of the people I see there crack my ass up. One such fellow was this guy who had a bit of a belly and after every whatever-the-hell he was doing on some angled machine, he would do this little side to side dance thing. He was obviously in to his music and in to himself, since it was pretty funny looking. A lot like a Chris Katan "Mango" routine on SNL. But after a few of these, he would bop/dance over to the freeweights and do the same thing with them. It's like I was watching someone who did X before going down for a workout. Had there been a pacifier in his mouth, I wouldn't have been surprised.       I realize that we're all at the gym to look our best and be in shape and that some of us are in different stages of that quest, but if you're going to dance around, I'm going to notice and I'm probably going to laugh. The floor of the gym is no place for freeweight dancing, just as the sauna at the gym is place to bop in to naked. Wear a freakin' towel! I don't care what shape you're in. I have absolutely, positively, no interest in seeing another man naked when it doesn't have to be so. I'm not homophobic. I just find the general hairy, lumpiness of the male body pretty unappealing. Word.