Wow, 124 responses on a post saying I'm taking some time off.

Maybe I'll take more vacations just to up the comment tally.

Seriously, thanks to those of you who wondered if something was wrong due to the abruptness of the taking-a-break note.

All that was wrong was some faulty wiring in my brain.

I actually took a cruise to Alaska and figured I would have some wireless access somewhere along the way (I decided early on not to pay the $1,000-a minute or so for access that the cruise line charges) to handle the "brief hiatus'' note en route.

Instead, the Alaskan coast proved as impenetrable by my wireless server as UW's 1991 defense, something I should have anticipated.

So I called in a quick request to let everyone know I was away in the minute or so that my phone worked.

Only my second cruise and not sure I loved it. Alaska's great --- lots to do there --- and we got real lucky with the weather. But I didn't realize being on a cruise is basically a constant test of willpower, with endless hard-sells for $7 beer, $11 coffee, bingo tournaments and raffle tickets. Even pro sports teams could learn something from these guys.

Then there was the endless tape loop that tended to settle on James Taylor's Fire and Rain every hour or so. Just what I want when trying to get away from it all --- songs about battling mental illness.

And my wife wasn't sure what to think of the whole food thing. Buffet lines appear to do something to even the nicest of people. Put a plate in the hands of Mildred from Duluth or Delores from Hoboken and they turn as venemous as Mike Tyson circa 1988 in their search for the best cuts of beef or slices of salmon. I was no match for most of them, tending to wait until the veterans got out of the way before wading in.

Anyway, that's over now, so we'll get back to all the usual things on the blog here next week.

And I did just enough reading through things to see that a little bit happened this week:

--- First, sounds like cautiously optimistic news for Juan Garcia in his attempt to comeback from Lisfranc injury. My e-mail included a message from the UW sports information department this week stating that his no-surgery approach appears to be progressing, if slowly, and that he'll be examined again in a month or so.

--- Second, a good source has told the Times that it sounds as if Bob Stull is not in the running for the athletic director job at UW. Doesn't sound as if much has leaked on that in the past week otherwise, but again, we are hearing that Stull is unlikely to be the guy.

--- Third, former UW football players Blair Bush and Mark Stewart were each named as part of the school's newest class of Hall of Famers.

I'm actually writing this from the ship now that we have gotten close enough to where my connection works, and I'm still officially off for a few more days. But unofficially, consider the blog back in business.

UPDATE --- Speaking of our Alaska trip, which I acknowledge has nothing to do with Husky football (I'll try to make that up to you with some quality Husky-related content later) we saw a really good musical group on our trip that I feel obligated to give some pub named Chapter 6. We simply enjoyed their music and they were nice guys who humored us after we challenged them in a game of basketball during one of the attempts by the cruise at building some bonding among the passengers.They stomped us like Steve Emtman taking down George Malaulu but made our 10-year-old feel like a winner, which made the rest of us fans of theirs. We became even bigger ones once we saw their show, which included imaginative takes on Krispy Kremes and The Wizard of Oz. So this is their official plug, and my official wondering how Nathan is as thin as he is since all we ever did was see him checking out the dessert tray. Good luck guys.