Many, many apologies to the few of you out there in blogland who stop by from time to time to learn about those Wielands of LA. It's been far too long.

The summer has been jam packed for the Wielands, especially since the wife returned to LA from a great time in sunny FLA. It's also been one of the most expensive couple of months on record for the Wielands. Consider:

• There's a new Wielandmobile in the house. Just like Batman, who had to occasionally replace the Batmobile after a particularly harrowing adventure (or after a new artist started working on him), the Wielands had to replace Our Man in LA's ancient, decrepit Volvo. The culprit this time wasn't the Joker, Riddler or any A-list villain. Hell, it wasn't even a D-list villain like, say, Batroc the Leaper. No, it was nearly 10 years of driving, including 8 Chicago winters. That's no way to treat a car. So in its place is a new car - a black 2005 Toyota Camry. Nothing too flashy or crazy, but at least it runs and runs well. Fact is, we like it. As one of my co-workers commented: "Wieland, you actually look like you work in Corporate Relations now, instead of looking like you work at a nonprofit in Inglewood." Well said.
• At the same time that we've brought in the new Wielandmobile, we're picking up stakes and moving to a new version of stately Wieland manner. Out with Culver City, in with Los Feliz. We found a place with about 300 more square feet for a couple of hundred less. And we get to live in Los Feliz, setting of the legendary movie Swingers. Finally, we'll be in walking distance to all the cool bars, restaurants, coffee places, and movie theaters that we've been eyeing. It'll be good to be able to stagger home from a bar again, rather than hope somebody's willing to be the designated driver.

By the way, as of August 30, 2005, here's the new Wieland address:

1964 Rodney Drive, Apt. 302, Los Angeles, CA 90027.

Phone number will likely remain the same. We're moving on to Vonage (also the new employer of Michael Glazer, aka Official Brother-in-Law of Our Man In LA, and now known as Our Man in New Jersey) for the cheap phone service.

And then there's the rest of this here summer in LA. I'm still getting some interest on my script NEIGHBORHOOD HEROES, and I finished another one last week. The wife is assistant directing a show up in Hollywood, and we've been trying to hang with some old friends who have recently landed in the City of Angels - like Arik Martin and MK Gallina from Chicago and Dave Eckstein most recently from San Fran.

Also getting ready to bid adieu to Hans Noel, who leaves sunny CA for a year-long fellowship at Princeton later this week.

And, of course, training - or avoiding the training - for the half marathon we're running Labor Day weekend in Virginia Beach, VA. The goal is to do the 13 miles in about 3 hours. We'll see. If you don't make it around the course in four hours, a trolley comes around and picks you up off the pavement. Nobody wants to take the trolley. It's not like there's a keg on it or anything.

Crazy, crazy times. But no more avoidance of the blog. I'll be back with more soon.