Apologies for the lack of updates. My laptop is hunky-dory but I can't hook it up to Jill's main signal, so it requires a fair amount of to'ing and fro'ing between the two computers with files etc.

Still a good few minutes before it's technically Christmas morning here in Iowa. But a quick Yueltide Newsflash to say that Tad, the brother of Jill - the friend I'm staying with here - has weaved his magic and apparently cured my laptop. Huzzah! So will probably be able to be back online properly in next 48hrs.

Christmas present round-up so far includes: Dr Horrible's Singalongblog, Play-Doh, Chocolate Orange, sweat-shirt, afleece, US Writers' Guide, cash towards this break from parentals, poker chips and food.

Spent Christmas Eve shopping locally, helping clean Jill's house (not easy with four cats, two dogs etc)and then visting Jill's dad with the rest of her family.

As the clock says about 11:55 here, I bid you all a good night...

I'm now safely in Iowa. The stay at Yotel, Heathrow on Sunday night was fine, though for some explicable reason I noticed on Monday morning that my blackberry was set an hour laster than it should be, so I was up at 4:45am, not nearly 6:00 as planned. However, I'd given myself plenty of time anyway, so it was an mild annoyance more than anything else.

The queues at Terminal 4's Northwst desk would quite easily have rivalled some of those for Disney theme park rides and I was in line for a good ninety minutes and was even queueing to get in the queue at one point. We took off over an hour late, but made up the time in the air. It wasn't a great seat, but I did get a window and the people at the desk were friendlier than expected given the stress levels.

I attempted to use my laptop when we arrived in Minneapolis, but the whole laptop appears dead, even when I use either a cable or the normal battery. NO idea why it's done this and very annoying as it was working fine at Yotel and there's a Peter Wingfield transcript and audio file on there that I don't have anywhere else - I didn't ahve the chance to abck them up last week. Can only hope the laptop is back in action before print deadline. I also put $5 in a internet-booth in MSP airport and it ate it without giving me my allotted time. Was glas to finally get on the plane to Sioux Falls, though that was an hour late too.

Arrived into Sioux Falls, South Dakota in the middle of a snow-storm and was met by Jill, her sister Mart and friend Natasha and with a quick pit-stop for food it took about an hour or so to get back into Iowa and home. By this tiem Jill's pets had run slightly amok, so there's tidying to be done today.

Despite warnings, it's not incredibly cold, just chilly as long as I wrap up warm. Doesn't look as if it'll snow again before Christmas, but the white stuff is already deep and crisp and even. But, I recommend you avoid the yellow snow.

Despite a couple of nose bleeds (these are quite normal for me after I've flown - it's the colder, drier air, I think) all is fine.

More pix to follow. But Yule Tide (B)log updates will be limited unless the laptop pops back to life (fingers cross), but hope to blog again before the end of the week.

You know when you discover something and it's just...yours? It's like that television show that only you are watching. (Well, of course, it's not JUST you - it's a you and a few million others and probably quite a few million more on that if you count those who use Sky+ and TiVo, which the US industry doesn't and that's not fair is it?) - but, gosh darnit, it FEELS like you've found something before everyone else, regardless. For me, it's a little like that with the song Hallelujah. Sure, it's been around for years and it's been recorded by something like fifty people, probably on the edge of my radar forever and even used in a Shrek movie for heaven's sake... but hearing it used years ago in a particular stunning West Wing episode... I HEARD it. It resonated. It was immediately the kind of song you want to keep to just yourself for those moments when you need inspiration yet also immediately play to anyone and everyone who'll listen. Like all truly great songs it finds a way to punctuate your life like a particularly scathing comma.

Four days before I leave for Iowa (today -14 degrees!) I think I have the vaguest sniffle of a cold. No, don't worry, I'm well aware of the classic irony.

However plans are going to... plan. The main bag is almost all packed and though I'll go through it again on Saturday just to be anal-retentive completely sure, all the very essentials are accounted for and ready to roll. Just toiletries and some camera tech to go in there, nice and safely. I pack like a girl (which is good) but without the shoe factor.

The interview with Tim Minear went well. We discussed the upcoming Eliza Dushku (pictured) vehicle Dollhouse, Drive, The Inside and Firefly amongst others... as well as the emerging new market for drama (straight-to-DVD specials, the Net etc). I'm thinking some of those latter quotes may be saved for a separate new tech feature in the new year. After all, if a writers' strike and a possible actors' strike are concerned with new media, then so should we all be. Still to come this week are a chat with veteran movie poster designer Bill Garland and, if schedules permit, Leverage's Gina Bellman - both for Impact. In the middle of that I have to do the very last bits of Christmas shopping and attend the Impact Christmas party otherwise known as Daniel Day Lewis': There Will Be Food. I never turn down the annual opportunity for my publisher to spend money.

Just a little more writing to do before bed and the sleep of the just. In the meantime I'm listening to the news saying a rapist has got two life sentences and will serve at least... twelve years. Unless the guilty man is over seventy, I think I've just spotted where our legal system is going wrong.

So, all being well (and me being well) at this point in a week's time I should be safely ensconsed in Iowa for the Christmas holidays or at least have touched down in Sioux Falls, complete with baggage. One look at www.wunderground.com (the weather site as endorsed by Moz) shows that there's a good chance it will be cold. Very cold. Warmth: nil point. Possibly double figures below and fallling. I'm imagining icicles hanging off my nose. Not an attractive image. Yes, I've packed thermals, thanks for asking...

Despite the world not feeling as festive as it should, I decided I should enter into the spirit of the holidays and spruce (ha!) up the blog. After some html twiddling and image-correcting, the blog has a decidely wintery look - for those of you with wider screens there's even a Christmas tree. Notice the lack of presents under it so far. I'm just saying.

While I intend to blog through the Christmas break if possible, there is a middling chance that my Net connection may not be ideal and therefore if there's a lack of Mozblogs after next Sunday, that's more likely the reason than me being up to my neck in a snow drift. Though, that's always possible.

Yesterday (Sunday) I caught up with Peter Wingfield (Highlander / 24) who I haven't spoken to since earlier this year. He's keeping busy in LA and beyond and there'll likely be a feature on him in the Impact out in late January, just in time to co-incide with the return of 24 to screens. Tomorrow (Tues), I should be chatting with Tim Minear (of Buffy, Angel and *sob* Firefly fame) about his latest project along side Joss Whedon, Dollhouse. Both Peter and Tim (and the people around them) are excellent people. Still chasing some of the Leverage cast and putting together several Impact features before I head off. Hopefully this week I can get a fair amount done without giving myself a headache. I've had a couple over the last few days, but thankfully not the explodey kind.

Still packing, but remarkably ahead on points and weight-rationing. Okay....I think I'll go watch the Wolverine trailer again, or maybe some West Wing episodes before a well-earned sleep and back into the thick of it tomorrow.

Ho Ho Ho. Or something.

After a long time resisting, I actually have a Facebook account (blame David Fury) and though I've got quite a few old, new and very interesting friends on my list there and have rediscovered a fair amount of people I'd lost contact with, I also get a lot of the well-intentioned but rather more useless 'application' invites which ask you to ultimately sign up to a lot more you aren't interested in. Truthfully, I can indulge in cyber-snowball fights and virtual hugging and return such with vigour and... hey, I'm willing to hang my Christmas stocking in certain profiles with a mighty Ho Ho Ho...but application-wise I have no use for ''lil green patches' or 'If you you were a rare fresh-water pebble, what colour would you be?' I'll leave that for the inevitable and over-priced psychiatric sessions I'll have somewhere down the line.

Well, I was back at actual 'work' for the first time yesterday and it didn't prove too much of a strain. Being able to work form home has meant that my Impact duties at the office were merely looking over what had been done and making small corrections/changes as needed. Even managed to sort out the budget. Neal and the team have done a good job with #205. It'll look great. Please buy! :)

I went to my doctor on Friday for a check-up and he's given me the all-clear to fly off in two weeks' time. As he pointed out, I'm at that annoying stage of recovery where I'm largely all repaired but at the edge of still needing to be a bit careful/ being too careful. He's basically said that it can take weeks and months to actually FEEL 100% again and to simply act appropriately to how I feel. I'm still sleeping more than I did and sometimes grabbing an hour's sleep in the evening. However I should be fine to engage in all things Christmassy, though I may avoid significant hangovers and headaches.

So, in the last week just kepy fairly local (went down to Kirkstall Abbey to take photos by the river there (see above) and my plan is to pop back into Impact - possibly on Tuesday - to have a look over the current issue that goes off to printers on Friday and also discuss budget issues *sigh*. There are some good interviews surrounding the new show Leverage (on TNT in the US on Sunday and Tuesday nights this week) in #205 - particularly Dean Devlin and Mark Sheppard and hopefully with more to come. Catch the show if you can.

Also, I recently e-mailed Heathrow's Yotel to say I'd been disappointed to have a room next to a literal jack-hammer last time I stayed (see the blogs from the end of May) and if I was going to use them again, I'd need some assurances of a good night's sleep. I was pleasantly surprised to be offered a free stay there, so looks like my accomodation for 21st Dec is sorted before I fly out. See, complaining DOES get decent results.

Well, peh. Today was going to be my first proper day out doing stuff after November's brainfart and I was all set to go to London to do some press stuff with Samuel L Jackson and Frank Miller for The Spirit movie. You know... typical Thursday etc etc.

For the last week I've been having problems with my laptop. No, no... this isn't another PC World rant. But it did seem I picked up a computer virus that randomly redirected all Yahoo and Google searches to sites I'd never heard of or particularly want to. I sort advice at the http://www.computing.net/ forum they talked me through some step-by-step ways to find out exactly what was causing it and towards some downloadable solutions. It felt like jumping through hoops and sometimes frustratingly not being able to find the hoops to jump through, but after the posting of several 'logs' and at a point where I couldn't follow the instructions precisely any more, my laptop seems to be abck to normal - so one of the virus killers I got from them is doing its job again - albeit not the originally installed McAfee one which I paid about £40 for , which missed the virus to begin with, couldn't stop it when it surfaced and then stopped updating at all.