An international affair

We had a new guy start this week at work—the one I mentioned who is from Nigeria. His supervisor and I took him out to lunch on Tuesday, and had an interesting conversation. It was my fault. I asked him about Nigeria, and he stretched out his arm on a vacant chair next to him, stopped eating, and began an expansive discourse on the major tribes of Nigeria, the regions in which they live and the relative political power of each. While it was a remarkable presentation, I broke in to relate some tidbit of my own in order to give him a chance to eat, since, after all, we did eventually have to get back to the office. He politely sat and listened to me, but he didn’t start eating again. I had to indicate that it was OK to eat while I talked.

I am so glad he does not report to me. His supervisor was run ragged all week taking him to meetings and events. I just had to sit with him for about an hour to explain our database system to him, and he understood it easily, since he has an IT background.

One of the coordinators who does report to me was out sick a couple of days this past week. She sounded awful on the phone. The director’s secretary had also been sick, so I hope whatever it is is not marching through the office. When the coordinator returned to work on Friday, I hung a biohazard symbol on her door. She didn’t think it was all that funny. I got a kick out of myself, though.

Puttin' on the Ritz

This was the weekend for Kathy’s Big Adventure at the Ritz downtown with Lois and Priscilla. This is their third such outing. Apparently lounging in opulent surroundings and being spoiled by an attentive staff never gets old. They went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum (the operators are persnickety about including the words “and Museum” in the title) on Friday afternoon after checking in. Kathy was enthralled with all things Mick Jagger and her sisters of course made fun of her. On Saturday they window shopped around the mall that makes up much of the Terminal Tower complex and then went to dinner at a fancy-dancy place a few blocks from the hotel. The wait staff was all over them and the food was magnificent, so they had a great time. Kathy even had a piece of cake with a candle in it as a surprise from the restaurant.

The room did not have the fabulous view of the river that they had last time, but the registration people remembered them greeting them saying, “Oh, you’re back for your pajama party!” Looks like this could be habit forming.

Not to put too fine a point on it...

Tank has been settling in this past week. We’ve been walking a mile and a half at 5am and another two miles at 5pm and one of us should be in pretty good shape soon. On Saturday of the Labor Day weekend, our extended family met at the same park we had had breakfast in back on the Fourth of July. Tank was the big attraction since most people had not met him yet. Shane’s girlfriend, the tri-athlete, took him for a run back and forth in a big field; a nephew's girlfriend took him for a walk in the woods, then my brother and sister in law took him for another spin on the trail. By the time we got home, he was exhausted. This is significant because we’d never seen him like that. He had always seemed ready to go. In any case, everyone was suitably impressed with him. He was, of course, a perfect gentleman. Oh. Except for the crotch thing, but hey—he’s a dog.

Kathy and I went out to breakfast on Sunday, did a little PetSmart shopping and then came home to give Tank his first bath with us. We did it outside since it was so warm. He did very well, but Kathy did not. You see, Tank took out my good knee during the Saturday outing. He swung his head at just the right angle and that was it. She was afraid he was going to take me down during the bath, but he behaved quite well.