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I'm sorry, but I'm speechless at the moment.

I was not at home when the NBA All-Star Game started, but a message in voicemail broke the news: Siegfried and Roy, then Wayne Newton, then, singing the national anthem, no less:

Danny Gans.

I'm sorry. I can't absorb this news.

I've told you my feelings about Mr. Gans before.

And now I've gone from enjoying the idea of the NBA in Las Vegas to utter horror. It couldn't be worse if Bill Simmons was blogging live from the slam dunk competition with one hand in his pants while searching IMDB.com with the other to come up with appropriate 80s cheesy movie quotes to describe his love for Gerald Green- I assume that's what he's writing about if he's not namedropping as he always does at these things (yeah, good for you, Bill, you hang with celebrities, great, shut up). You have several stars MIA, a bunch of spoiled rich celebrities jamming the VIP rooms all over town, and a self-satisfied look-at-us-we're-stars-partying attitude permeating the proceedings. And Danny Freakin' Gans singing the national anthem. It does not get much worse.

I haven't watched a second of this mess. I don't think I'll start now. Good night.

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Here's the deal: this week is a travel week. I will be heading tomorrow to a speaking engagement (!) at a seminar for a broadcasting company. I will be traveling to a far-off land where the ground is coated with white magic and the people frolic with cheese on their heads.

As a result, I am frantically trying a) to get all my work done before leaving, b) to pack and get my laptop updated and all that, and c) to refine what I'm going to talk about so as not to come across as a blithering idiot. Okay, that last part might be rougher than others, but I'm going to give it a shot.

But that means something has to give, and the stuff for which I don't get paid, well, that goes first.

Talk to you tomorrow, depending on the availability of reliable Wi-Fi and/or EVDO.

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Things started out well today- caught an early flight to Minneapolis. That's about it for the day- I couldn't get on the next flight to Green Bay (full up) and had to wait several hours, during which I discovered that my internal laptop wireless card had chosen now to die. I did get some work in, but it was a battle with a connection that cut in and out every few minutes until finally just dying. Done. R.I.P. And I could only confirm that it was a hardware problem when I got to my hotel room and couldn't connect. I ended up hiring a cab to speed me over to the Best Buy about three minutes before closing to buy a new USB wireless adapter, then get me back to the hotel, which is where I am now, working and listening to the highly annoying noise from the atrium (no outside window, just one on a large room with a bowling alley, pool, and patio for a bar). Sleep doesn't look like much of an option tonight.

But I made it. And while I try to regain my bearings and get my talk together for tomorrow, remember that article that quoted Fran from the other day? It's on the web. Go here to read it. "Every day is a gift," indeed. As I said Saturday, she's my hero.

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Because every milestone is more special than the last...

Happy Birthday, Fran.

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It's been a long day, but a good one- I gave my talk to the folks at Midwest Communications, met some great folks dedicated to doing great local radio, and didn't, to the best of my recollection, say anything I might regret later. At least, I don't think so.

But I still have work to do and it's very late, so I'm going to just say Happy Birthday to the great Fran once again and then I gotta go. "The Letter" tomorrow if I can get it done on time. And maybe, if the loud music- it might, frighteningly enough, involve Karaoke- dies down across the Atrium of Sound, I might get some sleep. G'night.

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This week's All Access newsletter is about my week in the frozen north:

I'm in Green Bay, Wisconsin this week for a speaking engagement. Yes, I do speaking engagements (reasonable rates; book now for your special event, wedding, or bar mitzvah!). Yes, I know it's February. Yes, it's much colder than home. But I came here because I thought it would be interesting to meet 'n' greet the Midwest Communications folks, who are aggressively into local programming, something you know is near and dear to my heart. They do regular programming seminars for the entire group, and I gave a talk on... well, I'm not sure what I said. I did prepare, and I made extensive notes which I revised and re-revised until I had several pages of unreadable scrawl. So I went up on stage and started talking, and everyone nodded and I kept talking and I could tell words were coming out of my mouth but I'm not sure what they were. But it must have been okay, and I consider the talk a success because afterwards I wasn't asked to immediately leave the premises.

Next week: back home, where it's at least 45 degrees warmer. Meanwhile, many thanks to the people at Midwest Communications, who have been gracious hosts and have failed, thus far, to convert me into a Packers fan. That won't happen, guys.

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This week is ending the way it began- interminable delays at the Minneapolis airport. That's where I've been all afternoon, in what seems to be a futile effort to escape the Great Midwest before a very large snowstorm belts the area. I successfully caught an earlier flight out of Green Bay- the morning flights were booked, but there was room on the midday commuter jet- but the flight to L.A. was overbooked, then the flight for which I was ticketed got pushed back because the incoming flight was late. (I could have stayed in Green Bay and taken the later flight after all, but if you have to spend hours in an airport, Green Bay isn't the one you'd pick- Minneapolis-St. Paul, on the other hand, has every chain restaurant known to man and a lot more space)

And that's where things stand now, much time wasted sitting at the gate waiting. Serves me right for traveling. I might make it back tonight. It's not snowing here... yet. But there's plenty of time anf I have a finite, limited pool of luck.

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Lately, Cox Cable has been getting aggressive in its attempts to browbeat customers into signing up fot telephone service on top of its cable and Internet services.

Lately, Cox cable and Internet service has been experiencing outages. Like tonight, a clear, pleasant evening- no bad weather too cause an outage, but here I am stuck writing on my cell phone because the cable and Internet are down.

Yeah, I'll let them handle my phone calls, too.

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