Category: Uncategorized

We have been planning for months to attend an old friend’s wedding out of town. We made arrangements for the dog and put off adopting a kitten. I made the painful choice to not attend the Willamette Writers Conference in my own city, despite having two book proposals ready to go, plus two completed novels,…

Surprisingly, I’ve never read Great Expectations, though I bet I would like it. (Anyone who slogged through the middle of The Count of Monte Cristo would probably like GE, right?) I experience great expectations every 20 minutes or so. This is usually useful, but the letdown can be awful. I have been a fount of…

I have been practicing aikido, a non-violent Japanese martial art, for over five years. Thanks to work, family, and adopting an active dog, my four-times-a-week regular practice has crumbled over the last few months. And I felt terrible about it. My first stab at a solution was to train through it, as they say. I…

After a hectic couple of weeks where I’d overbooked myself (literally — I was editing two books at once), I got a reprieve. I took two days mostly off, followed by a light workweek. Rather than spending that time playing video games or watching afternoon TV talk shows, I spent it thinking. Just thinking. Some…

Last week, I cleared out some time in my schedule to bring my car in for a recall repair at the dealership. (No, it’s not a Toyota, and it has nothing to do with brakes.) I had visited the manufacturer’s web site — that’s how I found out about the recall — and made my…

I don’t usually do new year’s resolutions. I would rather fix what needs fixing when it needs fixing rather than make a list in the last week of December of things I’d like to do in the next twelve months. But, of course, there are things that happen to need fixing right now — not…

I went to SEMA in Las Vegas this year, and then the Los Angeles Auto Show a month later. The Lexus LFA supercar was at both shows, and I’m my own automotive photographer. So I took lots pictures to share with my readers on About.com. I’m the Guide to Exotic Cars there, and a $400,000…

There are two events for automotive journalists I’m most looking forward to this summer (so far). First up is the the Northwest Automotive Press Association’s Run to the Sun driving event. Then I’ll attend the National Electric Drag Racing Association’s Wayland Invitational IV. NWAPA’s event involves driving 18 or so sports cars and convertibles through…

I just got back from driving a Maserati, a Dodge Viper, a C63 Mercedes-Benz tuned by AMG, and the Audi S5, among 15 others, through the mountains of Central Oregon. I drove faster and pushed harder through corners than I probably ever have, and the people on the rally were as nice as the cars.…

I leave bright and early tomorrow morning to join my fellow Northwest Automotive Press Association members on a two-day jaunt through Central Oregon in a string of fast cars. The organizers lined up everything from a Mazda MX-5 (that’s a Miata) to a Maserati, with the likes of Audi, Volvo, and a Dodge Viper thrown…