Hah! Bad news - reaching for John Nathan's book Japan Unbound, I spilled a glass of water on the back of my computer monitor. I watched the picture wink out and promptly unplugged it. I'm hoping the screen will dry and resume service.

Good news - I bid on a house in Culver City. That's sort of central-west Los Angeles. The place is extremely inspired - slowly remodelled by a painter and dancer, with a strong Middle Eastern flavor. It's smaller than some of the houses I looked at in my price range, but man it's just got so much character. One large open room extends from the living room through the kitchen into an intimate backyard. So I think living there, working from home, I'll invariably spend time in the out of doors. That's a big plus.

When I saw the place, I got real excited; I wrote a letter explaining my enthusiasm to share with the seller. After some of the negociations proceeded, and her agent was asking my agent some questions about me, I wrote another letter to explain my position. I included my name and phone number. She called me, to explain that she wanted to be sure the right kind of person ended up in the house. My letters spoke to her, she said, but she wanted a personal guarantee from me that I was going to be able to follow through financially on the offer I'd made.

Yes, and yes! I said. Breathing hard, I tried to pace myself to no avail - words tumbled out, enthusiasm for the home, eagerness to inhabit the space, duty to honor my bid. She took them all well, expressing some agreement. And then there was silence for days. Until just now, she called, and said, I think I'm going to give you the house.

So that's the good news. Holy smokes is that ever good news! Contracts to be signed, but I appreciate the fact that she wanted to deal person to person. Now I gotta see if my monitor is dry.