Following the temptations/wicked suggestions/excellent advice (choose your own description!) of various friends, I have now tried both the Cuban and the Ecuadorian Lindt dark chocolate bars (which means that yes, I went over my 1 square-a-day limit yesterday, but it was for the purposes of scientific experimentation, so it didn't count!). So my important scientific update of the day is: the Cuban dark chocolate bars are way, way better! Still lusciously dark and rich, but with a lovely, smooth sweetness underneath. (I probably would have thought the Ecuadorian bar was great if I hadn't tried the Cuban first, but as it was, I found it too bitter and not flavorful enough.) Patrick kindly acted as my fact-checker by trying squares of each of them, and he completely agreed with me that the Cuban was the best. As soon as we get to the Madagascar, we'll let you know how that compares...or, if you want to taste-test at home, you can order your own and add your vote! (Actually, I cheated - that link doesn't lead straight to any actual ordering info, since I didn't know whether to link to an English or an American website for purchases. Instead, it just links to the descriptions of the chocolate bars. But I figured at least that would be enough info that you could track them down if you wanted...and really, they are SO yummy.)

In other news, I've gotten Kat to the section of the novel where the hero/heroine is traditionally backed up to (the metaphorical equivalent of) the farthest back corner of a perfectly sealed room without doors or windows, with twelve hungry crocodiles advancing on them and the villain cackling over the loudspeaker...or, in other words, I've finally hit the climax, in which I've thrown her into a perfectly inescapable predicament...and I am now desperately, desperately trying to figure out how she could possibly win in the end! I spent a full hour staring blankly at my computer screen this morning without typing a single word. Finally, finally, over the course of another hour and a half, I wrote the first 1200 words of the big climactic chapter (or at least the first of the big climactic chapters), which put her and her family into even MORE trouble...and now I'm feeling just about as desperate as she is about how she could possibly get out of it! Let's hope we both get lucky and smart over the next day or two...

Maybe I need more chocolate for inspiration!