Hello. My name is Jelly. And I am a WarCrackoholic.

Actually, I'm not so close to addiction, but I recognize that this game is taking up an awful lot of my time since just before Christmas when I joined some 8 million others online. It has certainly cut into my running time sometimes, as the choice to go running in the frosty air in the real world is easily shunted in favor of running in the virtual world of Azeroth in a battle of Alliance v. Horde. But I have run dozens of virtual marathon distances on two different continents since signing up for this MMORPG, as the lingo goes or otherwise known as a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Most recently I have been running around Stonetalon Mountains as a night elf, member of the Alliance, trying to kill off several varieties of harpies and collect some crystallized scales from basilisks to complete a couple of quests. And now that the expansion pack is out, and installed on my computer, I know I will put hours more into developing my new character, a blood elf from the other faction, the Horde. (But as it was the first day of the expansion pack, I had trouble getting into the realm because everyone was trying to get in to either start new characters or advance their presently elite ones. Anyways, at the risk of nerding out more than I already have, I shall stop at that. No matter since I wanted to watch Rome. Have the entire season on PVR.)

Anyways, I am making this confession because it's really a two-tiered one. I registered my new elf after work today, after my Afterwork RunClub partner decided to cancel the session citing icy conditions. Winter has finally arrived. There are extreme cold weather alerts out there. And seeing that both of us have clutzy inclinations, we figured we should let the first week of winter go by, let everyone readjust to new weather conditions around the city (we're mostly thinking of cars here). I could have gone to the gym by myself to get a run in since I'd done nothing since Saturday's outing with my sister. Or I could have run around Azeroth.

The gym never had a chance.