Cruel Summer: Damn. I'm sick again. What is going on? I got over a cold just as my trip to DC/Chicago began a couple of weeks ago and now I have another one. This has to stop. There are a couple of possible culprits; one is my Reston crew, who were in Ann Arbor for the annual Lloyd Carr Women's Football Academy. They may have brought some exotic virus with them from the Virginia suburbs. I also visited a new health club the other day and they are known to harbor all sorts of creepy crawlies, including some that my poor little immune system wasn;t prepared for. Ah well, the only course of action available is to drug myself up and ride it out. How bloody annoying is that?

I suppose I should explain what the Lloyd Carr Women's Football Academy is. For those of you not up on college football, Lloyd Carr is the coach of the University of Michigan Wolverines. Each year, he holds the Women's Football Academy in support of the Coach Carr Cancer Fund. Approximately 500 (participation is limited) women from all over the country get together and break up into teams and are coached by the actual UofM football players and coaches. Then, after a catered lunch, they get to barrel out of the tunnel into Michigan Stadium -- the Big House -- and scrimmage right on the actual football field. What a good time. I could only watch but there were moments when I wanted to jump in there and play.

The women involved in this are not athletes, for the most part; many aren’t even what you might call physically fit. I would guess ages ran the gamut from teenagers through seniors, with the average age probably in the 40s. They are all just Michigan football fans having a great time. Highly recommended if you are looking for a good time in support of a worthy cause.

And speaking of Chicago, my travel essay on my DC/Chicago trip should have been done by now, but it's not. As you probably know, my first novel, Apple Pie has found a new publisher. I moving a manuscript from one publisher to another, errors can occur in the translation. As such I have been spending my free time proofing Apple Pie for what must be the thousandth time. And I'll have to do it again to verify that all my corrections 'took'.

Still, I should have DC/Chicago up soon. And I should be over this cold soon. Then maybe, just maybe, I can start enjoying the summer.

(BTW, my land line voice mail is FUBAR. I can see that I have messages waiting but I can't retrieve them. Thank you Talk America. So if I have been ignoring your call, I haven't. Try my cell, or email me.)

Another Week Gone: The only thing I can say is that this week proved that God has a sense of humor. A really vicious sense of humor. A big fan of dark comedy, The Almighty is.

But that not withstanding, a follow-up article on Deadwood is up over at Blogcritics Now I'm working on a travel piece about my recent trip to DC and Chicago, and I have a thick stack of fiction to edit. For now, here's some linkage.

• The Detroit Pistons won a stunning victory in the NBA Finals. They were written off before the series and now everyone is wallowing in I-told-ya-so. For a clearheaded and very funny take on it check out Bill Simmons. Favorite quote: "...there's no better way to pass the time in traffic than to talk to yourself in the Larry Brown monotone for 10 straight minutes: 'I'm very proud of my car right now. It's not heating up at all. I even have the air conditioning on. It's just a credit to the people who made this car. Other cars would be overheating right now. I can't control what people think about this car. I'm just taking it one traffic jam at a time. Now I'm going to count backwards from 10. When I clap my hands, you will wake up from this traffic jam.' "


• Scam alert. I almost fell for this one; it's very different from the ch34p v14gr4 spams you get. It's from an outfit called "ShareYourExperiences.com" and starts like this: "Someone who knows you is attempting to share experiences opinions and experiences about you via our website. The purpose of this email is to inform you that a posting has been made about you at our website. This is email is not commercial in nature.", then it directs you to a website to see what that someone wrote. When you get there you find that you must pay a subscription fee to read what was written about you. The fact is nothing has been written about you. Don’t fall for it. Here are the details.


• Adnan emailed to let me know about his site, Sensory Impact, for design mavens. Cool stuff. Check it out.


• Running away from things in the movies. Given the comparative velocities, it looks like directors could use a reality check.


• The WB is bringing back two shows from my childhood: Lost in Space and Dark Shadows. Lost in Space was an after school staple and Dark Shadows scared me to death. I'm betting they go for irony above all else this time around.

Long Time No See: Hey, remember me? I have spent the last couple of weeks in DC and Chicago; just recently returned and I am a good twenty-thousand leagues under the sea, both at writing and at work. There will be a Deadwood essay coming. There will be a full recounting of my recent journeys. Apple Pie moves yet closer to re-release. And it's all going to happen without my head exploding -- I'm pretty sure. For now, sleep and catch-up at work; then I'll be back with more. Don’t touch that dial.