I can tell it's summer. Even though the inbox overflows with seminar, webinar and teleseminar topics, it takes all my energy just to hit Delete. Now more than ever, clever titles are critical: The Press Release is Dead (Will Somebody Tell the Clients?) scored for me. Also, Editor's Summer Camp. Pour me some bug juice and sign me up for the campfire singalong. Perfect.

If you have to hone your professional skills, even in the summer, subscribe to an e-newsletter with a Hound Joke of the Week -- thank you, Joan Stewart. Not enough time to attend the IABC conference? No worries, Charles Pizzo and Warren Bickford are there, blogging the highlights for you. Almost better than being there.

They are all pitted against my favorite summer pasttime: escapism! At the top of summer reading list is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. For up-to-the-tenth-of-a-second news on the July 16 release -- yes, there is the obligatory count-down clock -- visit the HPANA. More than 40,000 people are members -- 1,077 Muggles online during my visit. Any site where your cursor turns into a wand is big summer fun in my book.

I've got my own countdown going. Lake Michigan, July 9. We are there!