Well, I did it! After getting one chapter done I managed to break away for a moment and get to the Big Muddy Blues Festival on Sunday night. It was great. There were maybe five or so stages set up at different spots on Laclede's Landing and bands played various styles of blues. Food and drink vendors lined the cobblestone streets that were closed off to traffic. Tons of people. In bars and restaurants, walking and sitting along the streets and lawns. Young, old. I quickly saw that this was an extremely popular event.

And here's one of the downfalls to leaving your cell phone off. I had a friend trying to get in touch with me because he had tickets to the Rams' last preseason game. My friend knows how much I love football. My friend knows how much I love the Rams. And I missed the call. I wanted to kick myself. On the other hand, it's probably good that I didn't know because that was my 11-hour workday and I do think I would have ditched the writing for football. Well, hey. I'll be done next week and will have all season to go to the games.

Yesterday, I got another chapter revised after spending part of the morning volunteering with United Way to collect money for the Hurricane Victims. So, now, I'm two chapters behind where I really want to be, but I'm not really worried. Okay, the countdown is on. I got exactly one week to whip the last half of it into shape and get it to my editor.