I'm going to be straight up with you because I am a straight shooter who shoots from his punches and holds no hips: my heart is not into blogging this week. I know, you're shocked by this because it always looks like I'm giving 118% day in and day out, but believe me, this week, I'm totally coasting. Why? Well, because it's the week before my vacation and I can't really be bothered with all this work.

Plus I'm exhausted. I mean, I haven't had a vacation in nearly three months. How messed up is that? I think that must break some sort of law. Three months! These last few days leading up to my next one have been killer. Yes, I know last weekend was a long weekend, but it wasn't long enough. Sure, Jesse Helms died and that was an added bonus, but five evil, backward-thinking former senators could have died and that still wouldn't have made a difference. I need a break.

You see, blogging is very hard. What more, blogging nearly every day of the week is even harder. And so what if I do most of my blogging on my back deck, amongst tweeting birds and lush plant life, drinking a cool, fresh-squeezed lemonade, while getting a foot rub from my intern Loni? Blogging is blogging and the job is a nightmare no matter how cushy the environs you do it in.

At any rate, I just wanted to give you a heads up: I'm not working at 118% this week. It's more like 83% (57% if Loni makes my lemonade with too much pulp). Does that make UW still worth your time to read everyday? Certainly. Me at 83% is like Dooce at 89.4%. Science has proven this. So by all means, keep reading. I promise to give at the very least 57% percent of myself to each and every entry that I will more likely than not write over the course of the next few days. Depends a lot on the heat. So stick with me, readers!

This post is dedicated to treasure troves.