This is the poster for the summer writing seminar I co-direct with my friend Ian Ramsey (see yesterday's post). If you click on the poster so that it's big enough to read, you'll note that the seminar is free and that all equipment and supplies are provided. If you know any New England teenagers who would benefit from thoughtful time in the wild with like-minded peers, please send them our way. I direct the writing program, and Ian manages the logistics. He's got long experience with taking young people into wilderness situations; you couldn't ask for a better leader when it comes to balancing adventure with safety.

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Yesterday's weather was so bad--ice and freezing rain all day long--that Tom stayed home from work, something he rarely does. The neighborhood looks slick and nasty this morning, but eventually I've got to get the car out of the driveway as, horrors, we are almost out of coffee. I spent yesterday morning editing, yesterday afternoon baking a chocolate cake, and then, in the evening, we slipped-n-slid down the street and around the corner for a dinner of crab cakes and duck. City life has its delights . . . crunching down the sidewalks under the frosted streetlights as the ice-laden trees glitter . . . a walk, a companion, a warm room, a beer.

Today I've got to read page proofs for my Beloit pieces, and do some publicity chores for the Kauffmann program, plus de-ice my car and buy food and go to the bank and maybe try to shop for a new pair of glasses.

I finished reading Laxness's A Fish Can Sing and liked it a lot--so much so that I want to go back to his Independent People, which I read once years ago. At that time it didn't make much impression on me. But apparently I was young and foolish.