Tuesday, 9:10 am: When I got up this morning, I pulled open the curtains and looked at the mountains. While I love the beauty of the Southwestern desert, and can even wax poetic about the neon lights on the Strip at night, I concede, based on the view this morning, that there may be reasons to want to visit Utah after all.

Caught the new episode of The Grid last night. Fewer embarrassing lines this time around, and the British characters and scenes still come off as more interesting and gripping. It's worth pointing out that both this and the fairly dull TNT Salem's Lot miniseries were directed by Mikael Solomon (sp?). So this says to me that Salem's Lot wasn't his fault.

Also caught the final minutes of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. I know these movies will never be as beloved as the original three, but I still like 'em. And when I'm watching Yoda take Christopher Lee to school in their lightsaber fight that I remember that.

Finally, I finished Billy Clikk, Creatch Battler by Mark Crilley last night. He's written a bunch of kids' novels based on his comic, Akiko, but this is his first original-to-prose creation. It still has all the charm and imagination I expect from him, but it's definitely different from Akiko, justifying a separate book (or series?). In many ways, this is a boy's book, in ways that the Akiko stories aren't. He's more into sports than Akiko, and more prone to take aggressive action (whether appropriate or not). This story also features a traditional family--although doing nontraditional things--while Akiko is surrounded by a constructed family of friends. The story was aimed younger than other books I've been reading, and had a nice "Spy Kids/Men in Black" sort of vibe to it.

And now, after breakfast, I'm listening to a bunch of botanical presentations. "Listening" may be too strong a word. (Happy place...) I do have an Invisible Detective book with me, but writing this email looks like I might be taking notes. Reading a book just looks like I'm not paying attention.

(Do any of these guys understand how a microphone works? Heck with this; I'm reading my book.)
Composed on my palmtop; posted whenever I remember to synch to the desktop.