Hello again.

Finally, the renovations to Dispatches International Headquarters' historic Clock Tower are almost complete - how-do, Dispatches-ers?

We hope you haven't missed us too badly - but we hope you stick with us - some exciting things are happening, and we hope you can be a part of it.

Firstly - Lava Lamps & Cheap Beer will return to its original format - a weekly column. Look here for links to it every Tuesday, or catch it at its own blog.

Secondly - a new serialized story project, A Nightmare of Chickens and the Civil War, will begin later this month, and repeat every two weeks, and possibly more often if we get enough time. We'd appreciate your feedback.

Also - we've integrated Google Ads into the mothership blog. Funds collected via AdSense will be donated to the Greater Chicago Food Depository - so click on through, folks!

We really did miss you. We hope to see more of you. Welcome back.