We're Off, Chris Is On, Fly Ash is Back

Hi there! Me and the Ms. are bound for Greece tomorrow morning -- we're going to land in Athens, spend a couple of days there, then a nine-hour ferry to the incomparable island of Santorini for five nights, then another ferry to Crete. A two-week vacation, planned last fall, and I'm thinking, What kind of people who have to work for a living fly off to Greece in the middle of May? Well, it's the best time of year to go there, and we've wanted to do it for years. I was there a dozen years ago on a solo tour and have wanted to go back ever since, accompanied this time. For some reason, we expected we might have a window of leisure about now, and although that isn't actually the case, we're forcing a window open.

I hope to do some travelogue blogging from there, maybe starting the 12th or 13th. There will be numerous Internet cafes so it shouldn't be a problem unless we're just too darn busy whirling from one amazing sight to another. Then after we come back I hope to post some photos.

Meanwhile, I highly recommend that you visit my son Chris' new blog, CHRISTOPHER ALTHOUSE, launched a week ago. It's excellent -- well written, observant, caustically witty, quirky -- and his subjects include pop culture and human behavior. It's got some good photos of Austin cafe life, too. It's in the vein of his mother's fine blog, but with Chris' own incisive and highly personal viewpoint. He's already building a good-sized audience and it can only climb upward.

In addition, I recommend that you order a copy of the book by Matt Bell and Josh Maday at DANCING ON FLY ASH, a well-designed volume that includes sixty of their best microfictions -- 100 words or less -- from their first year of blogging. I've followed their posts almost from the beginning, and it's great to have these well-written pieces in permanent form.

Talk to you later!