We've started blogging for the Huffington Post on occasion. No one told us that when you finish writing your book you have to continue writing blogs into infinity like some kind of carpal-tunnel purgatory! We thought we were done! It's fun to have a soap box to shout from, though, so we won't complain too much. We'll give our readers here (readers, are you there?) a head's up from now on when we post stuff there. In general, useful stuff here in this blog, verbose ranting over at huffpo.

So about a year and a half ago Stephen and I bought rugs made from recycled plastic bags to go on top of the black walk pads on our green roof (which got searingly hot in the daytime).  The plastic rugs had lovely patterns like woven oriental rugs, weren't too expensive. I thought it was a good use of plastic, and would reflect more heat off the green roof than the black walk pads. Many "green" stores sell these rugs, like Real Goods, etc. 

Well, we made it back from our book tour and the house hadn't burned down and the garden wasn't shriveled up and our dog was alive so everything's hunky-dory. We had a lot of fun and it was nice to take a break from our own burg and see what's going on in the rest of the country.

I was just trolling through the web and found this giveaway contest!

If you're feeling broke, or maybe want an extra copy to give to a friend...Unfortunately you can't read the referenced article unless you subscribe.

Stephen and I are in Austin Texas today.

And it is just a newborn. But here's another of our powell's blogs:

http://www.powells.com/blog/?p=3521

We are blogging every day for the week at Powells website (big independent bookstore based in Portland). Here's the first one:

http://www.powells.com/blog/?p=3512

Thanks! See you there!

So the best thing about LA was Vroman's bookstore in Pasadena, which opened in 1894 and has been in the same buildling since 1929. A truly amazing independent store.

Now that the fourth of July has come and passed, it may serve us to dwell for a moment on the notion of independence, removed from the hype and the hoopla. There is, of course, no questioning that our freedom, or what was left of it, has deteriorated over the last eight years. We have endured the rise of a cabal of autocrats who have wiped their ass with our constitution.

So right now I'm sitting on the California Zephyr in our “sleepette” typing on my mini-computer,  with a glorious view out on the Nevada desert sunrise. I had never heard of a sleepette before this trip, but they are AWESOME!