Archives - Weekly Update

I am soooo ready for the hour we lost last spring. I am convinced that THIS is the hour that stands between me and morning swimming. There is a new branch of the Y four minutes from my house that is open from 5:15-7:15AM (during the day it is a school for autistic children) and in the evenings. I am convinced that with this hour I can be IN the pool next week early in the morning since my normal wake time sans alarm is 6:45. That now will be 5:45. I can pretend I am living in the Caribbean (same time zone) and SWIM. I will consider it reverse jetlag. Stay tuned to see if this fitness plan works! Of course I have my usual 24 or maybe 63 things planned for this extra hour. I am sure you feel the same way.

As you read this, I am in San Jose at Book Group Expo, a weekend where I will be meeting book club members, seeing old author friends and meeting new ones. As I made my way across the country yet again (I am pretty close to earning GOLD status on Continental with six cross-country trips this year), I waved to Nebraska. If you live there, I hope you saw it. I tried to get the captain to dip his wings, but I figured since 9/11 that might be interpreted as some terrorist act!

The leaves are falling on the front lawn, making it look like a very colorful carpet. Doesn't that line sound like it belongs in a book? Of course that very colorful carpet needs to get raked up or blown away at some point, which definitely kills the lovely feeling pretty quickly!

I drove down to Baltimore for Bouchercon on Wednesday night. I love long car drives --- always have. As I got in the car I felt like I was doing a flight check as I plugged in my iPod, check... BlackBerry, check... phone, check... headset, check... Tom Tom GPS, check. The sound system in the car rocks (okay I sound 16, but I tell you, I feel 16 driving with music cranked up). I opened the sunroof and loved that drive. Funny thing; I just learned last weekend that the car does not have a six-CD changer. It has a single CD slot and then I can play a CD in the DVD. I still have XM, which I love, and I now can program 36 channels and it has a handy dandy iPod hookup. All is taking some adapting and programming. I am glad that the boys get a charge out of figuring this stuff out. I would prefer that everything just stayed the same, but I know life is not like that.

I am pleased to share that we have three author interviews running this week. And unlike what we have seen in the presidential and vice-presidential debates, the authors actually answer the questions that they are asked. Imagine that! As you know, I really do not like politics, but there are times when I watched the debates and I thought that maybe these folks can play "Jeopardy!" next. They can get a topic and say, "Economy for $200." Then they can answer something like "What is a problem that America faces?" Then the question can be resolved with a question instead of an answer! This might help.