Yup—It's Cancer The biopsy came back thumbs-up yesterday. But before anyone worries, this isn't a melanoma, the very serious form of skin cancer; it's just a basal cell carcinoma, which sits there on your skin and gradually gets bigger but isn't life-threatening.

I've come to quite like my funky dermatologists' office. The downtown loft quality of it, the wireless Internet access in the waiting room—I hope whoever was cruising Manhunt.net ("Hook up now!") found what he was looking for—the flat-screen TV on one wall, the Bebel Gilberto playing in the background...it's all oddly soothing.

Doctor John Adams started me on a treatment protocol in which the cancer is coated with an ointment called Levulan and then exposed to blue light, once a week for a month, which is supposed to kill the cancer cells. A nurse took me into a back room and laid me down on a table, putting goggles over my eyes—the light, apparently, is pretty bright. Seven minutes of crackling and fizzing later, and treatment one was done.

If all goes well, in a month I can proudly wear my "Live Strong" bracelet....  ¶ 8:09 AM