Listless: Yes, I am without list. As happens all too often, I am suffering from a cold. Or maybe it's pneumonia. Or bird flu. Whatever it is, it's bloody annoying.

Here's the week football column. BTW, you can see all the columns here. There's only a couple left to write this year, and that's good, because cranking out 3000 words about football every week is pretty taking over my life. Once the season is over I promise a long-ish post to catch you up on everything.

For now, back to bed.

Dumpage: Once again I am late in linking the football column. Considering the results, I should pretend it never happened. As penance, here are some links I have been collecting for you.

• For all my scientist friends, a lab report to be proud of.


• Travel round-up: upcoming hot destinations from Frommers, Fodors choice hotels, Gayot's top hotel openings, what's coming to Vegas. Sign me up for the Conrad Majestic.


• I am not a fan of the band U2. I find their music mildly annoying, and ridiculously overrated. I find Bono to be monstrously annoying and intellectually infantile. So I took a sly delight in the first line of this Paul Theroux editorial: "There are probably more annoying things than being hectored about African development by a wealthy Irish rock star in a cowboy hat, but I can't think of one at the moment." Heh-heh.


• 52 reasons why ESPN sucks, is full of gems. (Naughty language alert.)

Getting There: The football column has pretty much totally consumed my life. I've gotten to the point where I am glad there are only three weeks left. But it's been quite an experience. It's really the first time I've written anything under a hard deadline. I knew it would be lots of work and lots of compromises, but anticipating something and actually living it are, as always, very different experiences. That said, I won’t hesitate to do it again next year. Here’s Week 14.

Also posted is my review of Wynn Las Vegas over at Hotel Chatter. Final judgment is that it is neck and neck with THEhotel as the best on the Strip.

So through the end of the year I have three more football columns and, yes, my Hawaii write-up. My sincere hope is that when I am done with those I will be well positioned and properly conditioned to complete my next novel. I have also been collecting some links, so you should get a link dump pretty soon.

Bad Me. Bad, Bad Me.: Wow. Not only has it been half a month since my last post, I failed to link up my Football Picks for week 12, never mind the recently released week 13.

My excuse, as you will realize if you follow the picks, is that I have been in Vegas, betting games like a man posessed. Technically, I was in Vegas twice. I flew out for a couple of nights before Thanksgiving, stayed at MGM Grand, followed by three nights at Red Mountain Spa in Utah, including a day trip to the surreal Bryce Canyon National Park, then back to Vegas for a couple of nights at the fabulous Wynn.

There won't be a singluar write up this whole mess. If you want to know a bit about my time in Vegas, you need to read Week 13. I will also be writing up the Wynn for Hotel Chatter. I may also write up MGM since I stayed in their new uber-stylish West Wing, but probably not; it'll get prioitized away I think.

I doubt I'll write about Red Mountain either. The facilities are unimpressive -- not bad by any strech, just nothing special (although they are working on an upgrade), but what you get is some of the most beautiful scenery imaginable. And it's about three hours from Bryce Canyon where I took a ton of pics, but they do not do justice to the place. Again, I probably won't write anything about it, but I will try to share my pics. For the time being here are four. (They are fairly large .bmps -- about 1 meg each; I'll try get more and smaller ones up soon):

The view out my front door at Red Mountain Spa.
On the road to Bryce at 10,000 ft.
Bryce Panorama
Bryce Panorama with Thor's Hammer

So all that is coming, along with my long promised write up of Hawaii, which now seems so far in the past.

I'm also actively investigating the possibility of grafting at least two more hands onto my body. Nobody seems to be taking me seriously though.