Phoenix Rising

It's amazing how many e-mails you get when you shut down your blog for just a few days.

(Of course, those of you who subscribe to my RSS feed have no clue that the blog was down these past few days. You probably just thought I was lazy.)

Thank you to everyone who sent me "Are you alive?" and "May I be invited to your private blog?" messages. Both types of messages were appreciated, the former for the genuine concern and the latter for a little affirmation that people enjoy this blog. I was seriously floored by the number of people who came out of the woodwork.

To those of you wondering about my well-being, yes, I am alive!

To those of you wondering if you can join the private blog, there is no private blog right now -- the page you reached previously is the page shown when an author decides to grant reading permission to only herself. In other words, I simply stopped blogging for awhile.

I guess four days is an eternity to loyal readers.

This blog will remain open and will continue to house posts about food, travel, and entertainment. I look forward to continuing to share my pictures and narrative on these topics.

I will be creating another more personal blog soon for just family and friends, including everybody on my blogroll. When this site is launched, I will automatically send you an invitation. If you are a real-life friend who lurks (i.e., you read religiously but never comment) and you would like an invitation, call me.

And, yes, folks, if you don't know my phone number, that rules you out. I have to draw the line somewhere.

New entries on the private blog will be linked on this blog, so that those of you who use Google Reader or some other method of RSS feed subscription can continue to rely on your reader to inform you of updates.

Again, thanks for all the e-mails.

I'm back.