ATTENTION READERS

All blogging has been suspended until everyone stops being sick around here. Wiping your runny nose is bad for the hair. The dried snot makes it impossible to comb. And we might be able to get over these colds if a certain eighteen month-old would stop waking the house up at five AM so we could get some sleep. The cat climbing in and out of bed all night, the cat fights outside, and the neighbor's car alarms going off at midnight don't help either. Until we get some peace and quiet around here, all blogging has been suspended.

All blogging has been suspended until this week's job is finished. I've got a hundred-mile commute and a huge plywood and asphalt roof to tear down and haul-off and The Family Construction Co. is low on employees so don't ask me how my day was without first scanning to see how dirty I am when I walk through the door. And the Chula Vista Building Dept. is a pain in the backside and there's a Home Show next week, so the weight of the weekly work bears down.

All blogging has been suspended until I get something done around here. I've got people calling me about the DVDs and videos I was supposed to finish and mail off months ago and my little 800mhz computer can't handle the workload. I'd get a new computer, but I'm waiting for Apple to announce the new operating system so I can save myself a few hundred bucks. Until Apple gets it together and the iPods stop catching people's pants on fire, all blogging has been suspended.

All blogging has been suspended until I get these chores done, too. I'd like to finish some of the office shelves and filing cabinets and some painting and some landscaping and the fence in the back yard, so cut me some slack while I try to catch up on the end-of-year tasks before the family comes over for the holidays and criticizes it all. Also, it doesn't help the house mood when Mrs. Ditchman is picking up raisins and Cheerios all day long while the little Ditchman is walking behind her dumping out the box, so until we all cheer up, all blogging has been suspended.

All blogging has been suspended until after the next marathon.

All blogging has been suspended until both family cars function properly.

All blogging has been suspended until we make back the four hundred dollars we spent at CostCo yesterday.

All blogging has been suspended until the enemy's destruction is assured, or at least a treaty is signed in the Great War with the Ants.

All blogging has been suspended until the guests leave. We have some here now. They drink all our beer and wine while I BBQ and then they take up all my face time, and my face is in the keyboard at the end of the day. One of the guests has a broken leg, and so must be waited on hand and foot. This is annoying. Give me the broken leg, why don't you? I'll beg off this misery.

And the fixed boat languishes in the driveway with an old tarp over it while summer recedes into the memory of what was 2007, and it just keeps getting colder and colder. Until I get one fine day trip out of it, all blogging has been suspended.