It's been warm enough for swimming just about every day here with my yellow dog. My scull boat is all set up just right and has seen more of the lake this year than in the past few years. Our garden is thriving. I have been having fun playing guitar a lot. That's a good summer right there. I had a great time with a live session on jamplay.com yesterday. Thanks for all of the smart questions and the inspiring discussions. It was fun to play for you all from the comfort of home with my dog Betty nearby as always. I'll keep you posted as to more live sessions to come. You can check http://www.jamplay.com for lots of good info. Like them on Facebook, too. I'll be traveling to Colorado in a couple of weeks for a video shoot for the jamplay folks. That means that they will be adding a lesson series from me to their roster of instructors. I'll be talking about a number of some of my favorite topics in the jazz guitar realm. We'll also squeeze in some artist specific talks along with lots of playing and demonstrations. When it's ready to go, I'll turn you on to some free lessons as a sample to check out the site and get a feel for it. Stay tuned! My monthly column for Premier Guitar, "The Jazz Box," continues, so I hope you'll look for it on newsstands or on-line. I'm working on the October column now, which will include some special and valuable advice from Katherine Riggert, DO, on taking care of our fingers, hands, wrists, shoulders, and our whole bodies. She's my sports medicine doc, and has been a big part of getting me and my crazy shoulder back on the right path. Lots of people wanted to talk about warm-ups and good routines for our practicing and gigs on the chat yesterday. Thought I'd let you in on the column-in-progress. Meanwhile, the September issue of Acoustic Guitar Magazine has a Woodshed Lesson by me about adding 9s to your chords, with examples and a new song to try. You can find it on-line along with my audio examples, too. http://www.acousticguitar.com Thanks y'all. (Texas in-laws visiting this weekend...)