For those of you whom I may have offended on my strips for the first and second of this month, I hope that this Friday makes up for it.

And I want to talk a little about my motivation for doing what I did.

The very first strip Chris ever appeared in is the strip for January 1st 2005. She's been a very tough character for me to get a feel for. VERY tough.

I'ld like to say that I had her planned out since the start of the series. Well the truth is she's been the intended love interest but that was about it.

There's a lot about Chris that fell into place as I was thinking about her. True, there are some gags that have been floating around in my mind ever since I started peicing the strip together back in 01, but to REALLY get a feel for her, who she is, what she's about, didn't happen untill last week.

Last week I began to realize that these characters have lives of their own. What I mean by that is they have their OWN voice, they act independant of what I'ld normaly think of them. They now move on their own sometimes.

Take this week for instance.

I originaly planned on the relationship between Chris and our unnamed hero to take place later this year, possibly next spring. But then came last Fridays strip, and that changed.

I cannot tell you how long I debated running that strip. Seriously I was going over things in my head for a few days before I finaly said "SCREW IT, just do it. There's NO reason why she'ld wait around any longer."

So, she didn't. I didn't, and now I have to deal with the ramifications of a major plot point being bumped up a year. I may have quite honestly changed this from a five year strip, to a four year strip without realizing it.

Ah well, the most important thing is the story.

and I hope it's a story that everyone is appriciating.

Anyway, enjoy the read.

-Jason