This past weekend we went on a vacation to Michigan, leaving on Thursday night, staying at a hotel in Michigan City, IN, and driving to Detroit on Friday.

Overall it was a good weekend. We visited Carrie's family, went to a baseball game (Detroit Tigers vs NY Yankees--Tigers thrashed 'em!), and went to the Detroit Zoo. There was a steady drizzle falling for most of the baseball game, but the rain wasn't heavy enough to postpone the game or the fireworks (which were very nice indeed).

The only problem with this trip was the traffic was the worst we've ever seen! It took us 11 hours to get to Detroit over Thursday night and Friday, and it normally only takes 6.5 or 7 hours (excluding stops). On Thursday night there was a massive semi accident in the middle of highway 94 in Indiana, which pretty much turned the highway into a parking lot for 2 hours or so. That, along with extensive roadwork, meant that it took us 5 hours to reach the hotel!

On Friday the problem was more roadwork and an accident investigation near Ann Arbor, which stretched that leg of the trip out to 6 hours. We ended up meeting Carrie's parents at the game instead of driving out to their place and then heading to the game.

Thankfully the return trip only took about 7 hours. We've decided that we should fly on our next trip there, since driving is such a time sink. It's usually cheaper too, but only when we don't have to sit still in traffic for hours!

On the plus side, I did get a lot of reading done when Carrie was driving :)

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Since my entry last week, we watched Mystic River on DVD. That was a bit of a depressing movie, but it does have some excellent acting and a nicely-woven plot. And the ending... whoah! I thought something big might be coming, but man, they really crank up the drama near the end! I wonder how the movie compares with the book? This one's well worth a look in any case.

This weekend we'll probably check out The Bourne Supremacy, followed by The Village on the following weekend. Hopefully they won't turn out to be absolute stinkers :P

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Writing progress has stalled as expected, but I did jot down a new story idea the other day for one of the critique group's Weekly Words. I'm so far behind with those it's not funny, but at least I won't have any excuses for not keeping busy! About the only writing-related things I had time for last week were a couple of critiques. That's life *sigh* Maybe this week I'll scrape up a few more precious minutes to work on my writing...

2004 Stats:

2004 Word count:	22,016
Stories written:	8
Total submissions:	21
Total acceptances:	0
Total rejections:	20
Waiting for response:	3
Books read:	9
Fiction Mags/Chapbooks read:	16

What I'm Reading
Science Fiction 101 by Robert Silverberg
Song of Susannah (Dark Tower VI), by Stephen King
Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet #14
Locus, June 2004