THE GREAT GADFLY:

This Is How We Roll In The Land That Time Forgot

Times voice mail was checked during the three days I was home: 1 (that would be the one call I made, natch)

Times I heard the ring of a cellphone in my mother's neighborhood during the three days I was home: 0

Times e-mail was checked during the three days I was home: 0

Times I excused myself to write during the three days I was home: 0

Number of words written for my NaNoWriMo story during the three days I was home: 0

Number of words short of my 50,000 word goal as of midnight on December 1, 2002: approx. 15,000.

Number of movies rented and watched during the three days I was home: 5

Number of surprisingly subversive Muppet Christmas television specials (featuring Whoopi Goldberg as God) watched during the three days I was home: 1

Regrets, bad juju, general negative vibes upon my return from the three days I was home, on a scale of one to ten (ten being a rolling boil of familial resentment): 0