Hey, long time between entries here, sorry bout that gang. Got busy: with the holidays, my LP workload, finalizing our 2003 taxes (yes, that's 03. i know, i know), landing some freelance gigs. Been writing for the SF Bay Guardian, and will start teaching the SF based Travel Writing Boot Camp for Media Bistro in January, excited for that. Check the schedule at www.mediabistro.com.

Lots new at LP: Best of NYC and Best of New Orleans in the can, pub dates Feb 05; USA & Canada on a Shoestring on their heels, April 05. That one I'm stoked for, a first edition on content dear to my heart. Ah to be seeing the states with first-timers eyes again...nothing to compare with that visual realization. Also been busy with first edition Cape Cod, Nantucket & Martha's Vineyard, new New England, and new Florida and Miami titles too. On the 05 horizon I see city guides to Chicago, Boston & New Orleans, three cities I love but root against in sports.

Happy to to be involved with Don George with LP syndication at LP, highly exciting new opportunties for authors to get their bylines out in publications far and wide. I'm doing a piece on Homer, Alaska for the Portland Oregonian this week, will be working with colleagues to vet many additional pieces.

As for colleagues, want to give some nods here: To Thomas Kohnstamm, great Latin American history and culture expert; Becca Blond, ace reporter able to parachute in to any region and nail it; Robert Reid, a guru with a big beard and bigger imagination that often leads him to the more exotic spots, like Bulgaria, Burma and South Dakota; Liz Hille, fine fiction writer with a piece coming up in Winter 2005 Glimmer Train. Also props to Beth Greenfield, Chris Baty, John Spelman & Ginger Otis, and Tom Read, Jeff Hill and Jeremy Chipman. Good work all.

Finally, this week marks an end of sorts as I get set to saddle it all up here in the big SF and make that inevitable pilgrimedge, across the bay. Yes, San Francisco time is winding down, eight years in the city but soon to lay my head on an island called Alameda. Shh! Don't tell folks -- there's a certain untapped something going on over there, so close in yet so isolated, no reason to go lest you're going there. So don't go! Or do, but keep it a secret. Sheit, we all know we gotta leave SF after some time, tends to quicken with a littlin' around; to have found such a jewel so close in, and so reasonable, feels like going back to a time when the Bay Area wasn't all off-the-hook and unaffordable.

Yes, we rode out the dot.com, and got past 9/11, never got the Ellis act boot and now leave of our volition to a place we can spread and build, and save hundreds each month to boot. No, I won't be able to take the 24 bus to the Fillmore anymore. But WTF? It's just for now. If baby boomers have taught us anything, its that the Fillmore's are eternal - sometimes you get to the shows, others you don't. And they'll be back. Heck, If 60 is the new 40, that must make 40 newly 30, 31 tops. And what's an age? As unimportant as geography.

So this Monday, bleeding to Tuesday, sees me with six days to go on this chapter. Looking forward to the next one, starting Sunday morning with a U-haul.

94114 over and out
94501 and beyond