I spent today packing, with one suitcase dedicated to Madison, Wisconsin and the others to Seattle.

Why Madison?, you may wonder, unless you're familiar with a little something called Burnman Now, in which case you're too busy thinking "There's a reason why Madison is Madison" and trying to remember the name of that thing that runs down the middle of the highway.

The median! Thank you. Also, hail Jim Utz!

So tomorrow I'm off to Madison -- which I hear is ultra nifty keen -- to attend WisCon. I'll be reading with some of my Clarion West 2005 classmates in Conference Room 2 at 8:45 p.m. on Friday, if you happen to be one of the 1,000 WisCon attendees. And if you happen to be one of my CW 2005 classmates I won't see there -- i.e. if you are Eddie, Edo, Karen, Kris, Mischa, or Stephen -- please know you will be missed.

After WisCon I'll be back in DC for goodbyes and the tying off of loose ends. (Tip: never accept an appointment with the shadow government. Sure, you get to skip those annoying Senate hearings, but when it's time to resign, your boss is always like, "Yeah, but could you do one more thing before you leave? You're gonna to be in Caracas this weekend anyway." And you're all like, "Wisconsin, not Caracas." And he's like, "But could you go to Caracas? Thanks, that'd be great." Stupid shadow government.)

Oh, hey, that reminds me: I mentioned a Dick Cheney sighting a while back. Turns out the undisclosed location is an information booth at a mall / office complex in Arlington, Virginia. Seriously, I see him sitting there at least once a week. He spends most of his time glaring at a computer screen, but every once in awhile he turns his attention to passersby, and he always looks like he wants to stab every last one of them in the eye. Even so, I want to march up to him and ask, "What the hell is wrong with you?!!" 'Cause, you know...it's an information booth.