This past month my friend Cathy has been to our house a few times for dinner. We’ve been friends for more than 20 years and live in the same town, but her wickedly intense travel schedule --- she goes to the Orient like I go into the city --- and her homes in a few places around the country keep us from spending much time together. When we get together it’s always memorable, and we catch up like we just were together. One thing we rarely talk about is books. Cathy always tells me she is not much of a reader. Given the amount of time she travels, this always surprises me.

Interesting week as I was on call for jury duty in New Jersey. My number finally came up on Wednesday, and I walked into the courthouse waiting for the "bomp bomp" sound that I hear on "Law & Order." The jury waiting room was crowded with potential jurors, most of whom were reading. I was thinking of handing out my business cards with all of our URLs on them, but froze in my chair when a police officer walked by. My overactive imagination had me writing a plot of getting arrested at jury duty for soliciting.

Happy Last Day of Summer! The trees outside my window still are green, and I confess that I am not ready for fall color to march into my world. I love having the windows open so I feel like the world is coming inside. I am sure you know what I mean.

Fall, which to me is a nasty four-letter word right now, supposedly arrives tomorrow. I, who still am holding onto summer, continued to swim in the pool in our yard this week even on the very chilly mornings where the thermometer seemed to be stuck at 52. I raced from the house to the heated pool where the steam was rising off of it and wafting into the air. I saw that as a sign to jump in. I am sure that my more practical husband saw it as dollars floating from his checkbook. Two years ago I swam at the house 'til Halloween. With each stroke I was planning the geodome to go over the pool to ensure that I could swim through the winter. I guess it was those exercise endomorphins kicking in that were making me delirious. Well, when my husband got the gas bill in November, reality set in and I told him that that could be my birthday, Christmas, anniversary and Mother's Day present for the year. He did not disagree. And then I joined the Y.