And another weekend slips out of my fingers. Damn. It was a good one, even if it was quite busy.

Elizabeth had a great time in Durham on Friday night with our friends Jamie and Steffi (Jamie's almost done with his kick-ass cover for my story collection, which I think the publisher is really going to like). We had some pizza at a North Carolina "beer garden" (I forgot the name of the place) and Elizabeth put most of her nausea to rest with a couple slices and some breadsticks. She's still battling the occasional bout of nausea, by the way, but she's holding out pretty well now -- the worst is over, I hope.

Saturday was Slave in the Yard Day -- I pulled weeds around our fence (we have this nasty clover/viny stuff called "Creeping Charlie" that infests the grass and chokes out anything that moves, including small animals) and cut the grass, then had to rake all the grass up because it was so long and my mower sucks big time.

In between chores I worked on fixing up my short story, cutting out an entire character (one I really liked, too!). But he'll be in the novel that I'm hoping to someday write with the same cast of characters and setting, so it's not a total wash.

Next thing I knew, it was time to fire up the old charcoal grill and make burgers, and Elizabeth and I enjoyed some beers and burgers on the back deck. Okay, I enjoyed HER beer for her (I'm drinking for two, really!).

Today we went to my niece's christening and a brunch afterward, then Elizabeth and I both crashed for a couple hours. I hang my head in shame -- I never nap! But I guess I worked harder yesterday than I'd thought. I was beat (plus I was still recovering my ill-fated venture into playing full-court basketball on Thursday!).

I read a little bit this afternoon, and enjoyed the revised version of the play I worked on with filmmaker Aaron Vanek (he's done a great job of revising this story into something quite cool). And now it's almost 9 p.m., and the damn weekend's gone.

But hey, it's a short week -- we're bopping off to the beach Thursday night for a three-day weekend. Maybe that one won't fly by so fast. Yeah, right! Later...

Now Playing:
"Back Porch Music," WUNC

Now Reading:
Walk in Shadows, Nick Kaufmann