20,000 words

For most of July, I was stuck inside the walls of the Beverly Hilton, trying to interview actors and writers and network executives about TV shows I haven't seen yet. It's my job, and I enjoy it. But two weeks in any hotel, even a really nice one, is quite enough.

Fortunately, my soon-to-be wife joined me for the tail end of the press tour, and we got out into the fresh air for a few days after it ended. We drank a lot of good wine, saw a bunch of good friends (and a couple of adorable new additions to that crowd) and had ourselves a general grand old relaxing time.

Here's some photographic proof.

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Beer, Barbecue and Birthday

Just got back from an all-too-short weekend in the Outer Banks, where we attended the first annual PigStein -- a beer and barbecue festival thrown by our friends Chip and Tammy of Chip's Wine and Beer Market and High Cotton. Whole hog cookoff, more than 100 beers for tasting, and staying with friends at an insane beach house. Happy 36th birthday, Rick!



We hit the highway on Friday afternoon, and in just 4 1/2 hours we arrived in lovely Kill Devil Hills -- the site of the Wright Brothers' inaugural flight, and if you want to watch Rick quietly seethe, just bring that up as part of a conversation about North Carolina's "First in Flight" license plates. At Tammy's recommendation, we had dinner at a great Frenchy restaurant, and then headed back to the beach house they rented for themselves and their friends for the weekend. When I become a cult leader, I fully intend to do it in a house like this -- 14 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms, roof deck, volleyball court, pool, 3 kitchens, and 2 hot tubs, even though it was too cold to use them. Right on the water. The opposite of tough to take.

The beer and barbecue festival was the first of its kind, and we look forward to many more. Particularly fabulous, in addition to the many, many, many beers we got to sample, was High Cotton's "'Cue Cup" -- a savory parfait in a cup that started with baked beans, had a cole slaw middle and a barbecue top -- completed with a cornbread stick. Brilliant.

The rest of time we hung out with friends, visited the Bodie Island Lighthouse on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, slept late, and watched the Red Sox win. Oh, and drank a lot of beer.

Now if we can just get the mega millions to come in...

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