The only association I had with jury duty as a youngster was that drag of a Monopoly card that made you lose a turn or something. Clearly, whatever jury duty was, it sucked. But as an adult, I've become increasingly more interested in serving on a jury.

I was thinking today about what I would give up for lent...if I celebrated lent. Actually, it was more that I was thinking about all the crappy food I used to eat before I either 1) realized it was crappy or 2) learned enough to know that I shouldn't be eating crappy things.

Picture this. I'm in the middle of printing out the full layout of my next book (which I had just gotten back from the book designer), and my computer flashes that it's about to shut down due to lack of battery. No problem, just plug it in, right?

I heard this feature on a morning news show last week about short sleepers. People who don't seem to need as much sleep as everyone else.

I spent a few days in Chicago this week, and it was bitterly cold. Not that Cleveland hasn't been this winter, but still, something about CHI town this week just felt especially bone-chilling.

The answer is that I have no idea, but I had the chance this month to be a beta reader of someone else's manuscript.

These are the pants I wore to work yesterday. For obvious reasons. I mean, have you ever seen a more red pair of pants?

They didn't even have any Otis Spunkmeyer cookies this afternoon as I sat waiting for my car to be ready. Like a dork, I had packed some trail mix, so I wasn't starving without Otis, and I was also pretty engrossed in finishing the book I'd been reading.

This week I found myself digging into my journal/personal history archives in preparation for a book chapter I was getting ready to write. I had planned to start writing that night after verifying a few details, but once I started reading, I just kept going. And going. Bottom line: I got no writing done this week.

Real diamond dust? Really, Bath and Body Works? Pssshhh. Of course I still bought a bottle. Which only shows what a helpless ninny I become when the word diamond is involved.

Something people might not know about me is that I love the NBA. I was able to take in two Cavaliers games this week, and I was reminiscing with my fellow game-goers last night about how wonderful the good years were. The Winning Years.

This is one of my favorite parts about writing books. When it's time to actually make the decisions about what the book will look like.

I snapped this picture a few days ago because I like vintage typewriters and someday aspire to own one. I saw it, of all places, at Disneyland, in the treehouse that for so many decades was known as the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse, but which some years ago was converted into Tarzan's treehouse.

When I heard the power go off in the middle of the night last night, I went to immediate panic mode. And not just because it meant my heated mattress pad had stopped working. But mostly because it was -10 outside, and I wasn't sure how long my drafty Cleveland house could withstand that kind of temperature and still keep me and my cat alive.

I've written over 2000 words for 4 straight days, 8500 total, and for me, that's a record. I know it might not sound like that much for those of you who write for a living, but for a girl who has a full-time day job that does not involve writing, I'm quite proud of this.

Remember this post? Hopes and Dreams. Well, this is the night.

You've probably never thought about it before, because your family probably doesn't have a permanent slot on the Christmas program every year at church.

I was asked to be the speaker last night at a Christmas-themed event, and I confess it was nice to get down to the heart of the matter. You know, Christ. Bethlehem. The manger