Good evening, everyone. Anyone? I'm presently in game-rich Andes, taking a few days off to enjoy a four-day weekend. My wife Lisa and Cowboy Luke are coming up on Friday evening, so I have a precious few days (you parents will know what I mean) to do a little writing and mow hay. It was a very wet spring and early summer here. the hay is shoulder height and very heavy (due to the moisture content); the old Orange Blossom (my ancient Allis-Chalmers tractor) will have her work cut out getting through the stuff.
I've just come in from the deck, where I had a GE (Gringo Especiale) and watched the moon-rise; just as it became dark, the coyotes began to howl. Biscuit, our cat/caretaker ignored them; he was too busy hunting mice and baby rabbits (I know, I know, but hey - Biscuit is a semi-feral cat, which makes it all the more amazing that he lets my crazy five-year old have his way with him, which includes carrying Biscuit around, upside-down). My theory is that Biscuit knows where his bread is buttered, and Luke is his road to unlimited quantities of tuna, milk, and hot dogs when we're here. When I called home earlier tonight, Luke's first words were, "Does Biscuit miss me?"
Here's an update on the next few days: I had an interesting conversation with Andre Agassi's fitnesse coach, Gil Reyes, the other day. Gil is a valued friend and he had a lot to do with Andre's success and longevity. I'll write a post on our conversation in the next day or two. I'm expecting Heidi, our intrepid world traveler, to post a Deuce Club tomorrow. She's pretty smart - for a Harvard grad. On Monday, Easy Ed McGrogan and Andrew Burton begin blogging from Toronto. Both correspondents will be there all week, and I guarantee that we'll have great coverage of the first post-Wimbledon Masters Series event. Rosangel, who's done such a great job during the period when the tour as in Europe, will now get a much deserved break - many thanks, Rosia, for you contributions.
The plan right now calls for Ed to do the Crisis Center posts, while Andrew - if he comes out of his mourning of the Wimbledon final - will be focusing on feature material. I'm also going to put them on the spot by demanding that they take a point-counterpoint preview of the final.
I'll be around, until the end of Toronto, at which time I'll be going to Cincinnati to interview the most mysterious man in tennis, Nikolay Davydenko. That will be for a Tennis magazine profile, but I'll blog the experience and catch a little bit of the early action in Cincinnati. I'll be on a family vacation in Montana August 3-12, and then we begin our serious ramping up to the U.S. Open. And I just got word that A Champion's Mind is no. 16 on the New York Times bestseller list this week, which means (I think) that we get published in the book review list of bestsellers. That's good for two Petes, and for tennis in general, too, I hope.
This is an Off-Topic post, although I urge you to talk about what, if anything, you're doing for vacation.