Where, o where has the spotted dog been?

Last weekend, Lindsey and I fled the hurricane madness for a long, restful weekend in northern Arkansas. I literally had only one full day off from the newspaper business since Aug. 29, and many of those days were "half days" (10-14 hours).

We meet good friends at a wonderful place, Rainbow Drive Resort (www.rainbowdriveresort.com), and it's always a real disconnect from reality. We fish, eat, drink, read, play dominoes, sleep with the windows open, laugh, watch the wildlife and otherwise do not keep up with the rest of the world.

Until recently, our cell phones didn't work there. And, most disconcertingly, this time our wonderful hosts had added satellite TV. We don't think we like that. We did not turn to a news channel once, I promise.

The only thing we don't like about it now is we can't take Gumbo and Roux because pets are not allowed. We understand our hosts' rules -- but we still miss them. This is how they looked when we got home....