Sunday

Well, I have no excuses for being absent here over the weekend.  The schedule was not overly taxing: just didn't get started.  And the key to blogging is showing up.  At least I'm here now.

I'm giving top billing to 3 and Herky who spent the weekend in the 319 and the 563 for a Herky family wedding.  Let's officially give 3 the designation as Daughter of the Day.  We did a modified fff at srh4's place this afternoon.  Good stuff.  And without any effort, did in three bottles of vino to boot.  They are now on their way back to NYC, which will make for a very long day.

2 and I made a low-key stop at Biaggi's on Friday night, just to make sure that the place was still standing.  The place was a bit crowded, my normal table occupied, and quite a few folks waiting.  But the Assistant Manager pulled a couple of strings and got us one of the dining room tables in the bar area and we were able to bring over another couple as well.  Over-tipping has benefits.

Biaggi's is in the process of replacing the Manager who took over last Summer.  He must not have had the best people-skills, certainly as far as the female staff was concerned.  Almost all of the experienced female servers and department heads left the store after his arrival.  Haven't got the dirt, but with him no longer there, the story will likely seep out.

My pals Pete and Ron pulled me up to DeWitt and back this AM.  Somehow, we didn't benefit from much of any tailwind on the way up, but had to fight a pretty strong southeasterly cross-wind all the way home.  Why does it seem like I'm mostly riding into the wind, regardless of my heading?

My goal for the next six weeks is to get in 115 miles per week in preparation for Spain.  I've found that I can do four days a week without major problems: it's getting that fifth day into the schedule that's the challenge.  My body loses interest/energy/desire whenever I do three days in a row.  How can you ride five days in a week (in consecutive weeks)without doing three days in a row?  Maybe I need to expand the measurement period to three or four weeks.

The President is visiting this area on Tuesday.  Alcoa has a big plant on the East edge of Bettendorf, and the Big O is looking for some ink for the good news going on at the company.  Interestingly, Alcoa just got a big order from Airbus to supply material for some of their new planes.  (Airbus made a big splash last week at the Paris Air Show with like $72 billion in new orders.)  Airbus is the major worldwide competitor for Boeing.  Boeing being the company that the Administration's directed National Labor Relations Board is suing because the company had the audacity to build a new plant in South Carolina (a right-to-work state), rather than in Washington (a union state).  I'm a cynic, but I believe that there is a political ploy at play here.

It's a tangled web that we weave.

I can't believe I'm doing this, but Maureen Dowd actually makes this point in her recent column.  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/opinion/sunday/26dowd.html

Busy week here.  Lots of moving parts in the fam.  Should be fun.

BCOT