The first phone call I got today was from Roland Leong. That alone told me it was going to be a good day. Roland called to get me up to date on his test session at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on January 17 and 18. He's helping out with the "Bomb Squad" Nostalgia Funny Car, driven by Mendy Fry.At this stage, things are on hold with his position on Ron Hodgson's "Bubble Up" car from Canada, as the team's plans haven't been finalized for 2009. Oh yeah, Roland also beat me up for some copies of the magazine.That's just my luck, as the "Bubble Up" is one of my feature cars in the March '09 issue of DRAG RACER Magazine (which is on sale now -- hint, hint, wink, wink). I also featured Dale Pulde, Dave Sano, and Nate Bugg.Well, I'm headed to the annual SEMA MPMC Conference in El Segundo tomorrow and Wednesday (Jan. 20 & 21), where we'll meet with a different manufacturer every half hour for two days to discuss upcoming editorial plans. I'm dragging Tom "The Mongoose" McEwen along with me, too. It might not sound tiring, but I'll tell you what . . . that deal beats me up. It's hard to be cordial for that long!Thursday I'll be hammering against my deadline (which comes next week) and Friday is the opening day of the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona. Things are starting to get busy here in SoCal, but all you folks should know I still have nightmares about winters in my native Connecticut, where I spent the first 40 years of my life.I hope your day started out as good as mine did. Take care, y'all!