Interesting Thursday

In the midst of a very busy end of the week at work with the deadline for a big project and the departure of many of my colleagues looming, I took time to do a few unusual things. Several weeks ago a former Swarthmore College classmate who I had only talked with about 10 years for a college reunion called out of the blue from Seattle, where he lives, and said he is a "foodie" who was going to be going on a food tour of Kentucky. In fact, on the way from Seattle to St. Louis, to help organize Farm Aid, who was flying into Louisville to drive through Kentucky on the way to St. Louis. First on his list of food things to do was to have a Louisville special - a "hot brown" - I think Stephanie has blogged about this before - at the Brown Hotel (a signature downtown Louisville hotel featured in the movie "Elizabethtown" and on the downtown Louisville ghost tour that we've been on). And so - a little late, in the midst of all of this busy-ness - Zach and I did meet at the coffee shop in the hotel and he had a hot brown and I - more nervous about my calories - had a falafel sandwich. Then he was off to the other downtown hotel and then to somewhere in Central Kentucky for the evening. Zack is pictured at the hotel above. Click here to see his food blog: http://freshgroundpepper.wordpress.com/

By the time I got back to work, we were just about ready for really the second birthday party for my manager, Jack. You'll recall that we had ice cream and blindfolds last week. This week Ida helped organize a 1950s adn 1960s themed birthday party for Jack, who was born in 1949 and turning 60. Jack had deliberately told her not to ham it up - so no "60 is Sexy" sign on the building front door as with another colleague - but colleagues made cakes and cupcakes, I wore jeans and a white T shirt and a baseball jacket and brought Beatles CDs and a boom box, Joelle ran a 1950s and 1960s Toastmasters-style "Tables Topics" extemperaneous speaking activity that four of our colleagues did pretty well at - and some other 1949, etc. - themed touches. Below Susan takes pictures of us on an instant picture Polaroid - invented in 1949 - while Ida and Hilary cut and distribute the cake and birthday boy Jack sits at the end.



After work I went late to do health care reform phone-banking in New Albany and on the way stopped by the neighborhood where Stephanie had found the house for sale on the Web (after I had foudn another hosue for sale last weekend). I found three others for sale before finding the one below, and it is cute/interesting, but we can't afford it.

I only called for half an hour but got several people to commit to calling and e-mailing Senator Bayh and/or Congressman Hill. I left early to get home by 8 p.m. and walk the dog, but had ended up leaving something there and I had to drive back to the home of the volunteer organizer (Bruce) in Louisville's Germantown neighborhood (near Vincent's ex's family's home - blast from the past) and chatted with him (including more about real estate). Not a dull day.

-- Perry