Though it is early afternoon here in the Pacific Standard timezone, it has already been a long day for me. I was up at 4:30am Eastern Standard to catch a 7am flight from Dulles to Los Angeles. I swear, the older I get the longer that flight seems to take. Actual elapsed time was about…
Assuming everything is on time this morning (as I am writing this last night), I am on a plane to L.A. as you read this. Since I’m flying United and United doesn’t have Internet access the way AirTran does, I am in an Internet blackout until about 10am Pacific time. In my absence, let me…
When I lived in L.A., it was fun to watch the Oscars. It was a Thing That People Did. There was a party atmosphere, like Superbowl Sunday. When I moved back east, that feeling started to fade. And over the years, as more and more movies that I felt deserved to win, didn’t, it became…
Tomorrow I fly to Los Angeles for my day job team’s annual planning retreat. I usually enjoy this trip because I get to see coworkers I only see once a year (I’m the only one on my team who works in the Washington office). I also get to see old friends that I don’t see…
Earlier this week, the space shuttle Discovery made its final launch into space. With 38 missions under its belt and more than a year spent in space, Discovery is indeed the workhorse of the space shuttle fleet, and retirement for that fine steed is well deserved. The launch took place while I was vacationing in…
The simplest and most direct was to become a writer is to write. There is no magic in this, no secret handshake, you just need to be able to write, to tell stories that capture an audiences imagination. Writing is unlike almost any other profession in that there are no tests to pass, no licenses…
When I went to Europe in 2007, I blogged regularly about my vacation there. People who read the blog told me that it was almost like they were there on vacation with me. I hope how this vacation in the Golden Age has been for people following along. It is a blast to sit down…
We are lucky to have the best OB doctor ever looking after Kelly and the Sibling-To-Be-Named-Later. We had Dr. Kathy when Kelly was pregnant with the Z-Man and she was wonderful and the same is true now. The staff in her office are wonderful, too. They remember who you are from visit-to-visit, chat with you…
I didn’t want to bury the lead. Kelly is pregnant and we are indeed having another baby. The Little Man will be a big brother. We had our second doctor appointment today and everything is looking perfect. Since Kelly is now entering her second trimester, we felt it was time to make the announcement. Of…
[B]ecause I haven’t written about the escapades of the Z-man in nearly a week, I felt that a post was overdo. [I]t seems like the Z-man’s language is expanding in some Hubble-like function. I picked him up from school earlier in the week and his teacher told me that he is constantly saying “Please” when…
I find it remarkable that businesses can still get away with receiving faxes, but not receiving email with scanned attachments. The former is so incredibly slow, cumbersome and awkward and the latter is so easy and simple that it boggles the mind that scanned email is not de rigueur. We make use of Flexible Spending…
It seems that every year as I get ready to head to L.A., I’m in a mad rush to take care of a bunch of things above and beyond the usual fiction writing, Golden Age vacationing, column writing and other parts of my avocation that are, in themselves, above and beyond family obligation and the…