Missing: I once was lost but now I'm found!

I feel like I spent last week in a weird bubble - the bubble of leading the VHS Choir dinner theater. No, I wasn't in charge of the music, but I was in charge of everything else. We did two nights and managed to get people seated, fed, and entertained. Unfortunately, I didn't do anything else (with the exception of writing my column), which is why I can't find the floor of my family room from the clutter and I've got two weeks' worth of laundry looming.

But I'm back now, and I'm going to take a day to relax a little before I jump into taming the chaos, partly because I feel like I've been rode hard and put away wet, but mostly because today's my birthday.

Yes, feel free to raise a glass - you can toast anything you want. If we ever meet, just tell me you wished me well. I share this birthday with one of my favorite writers EVAH, the lovely and talented Erma Bombeck. Erma would have been 82 today, had she lived. She passed away April 22, 1996 from complications due to a kidney transplant.

My kidneys seem to be still firing on all cylinders, and I'm not quite as old. How old am I? Hold your left hand up about a foot from your face, palm forward, fingers separated. Now hold your right hand up to mirror your left hand. Now wiggle your hands back and forth while keeping your arms quiet. What have you got? Jazz hands! Also two-fives. Double nickels. The speed limit on some freeways.

That's right. I'm "jazz hands" old.

So time is ticking, people! I've got to get more written, more published, more sold! Freezer Burn will be released this fall, but in the meantime, Echelon Press has published an anthology, MISSING, to benefit the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. I have a story in the mix, "Cleaning up at the Franks," starring my P.I., Peri Minneopa. If you'd like to meet Peri early and support an organization dedicated to finding lost children, order your copy by clicking here.

Before I go, do you have an author or other artist with whom you feel an extra bond, whether it's a shared birthday, or a hometown, or even a food allergy? I'd love to hear from others who feel that special attraction to an artist's work, only to find out later that they share a common bond.

I'd love to stay and chat, but I got stuff ta do!