Wednesday PM

Well, let's see if I can't get back to a regular schedule.

Blogger does shut down occasionally for maintenance. It was just an odd deal yesterday. I had started the entry, stepped away for a while, came back and finished, and then tried to publish. With no success. When 4 is home for the holidays, I'm going to have her help me upgrade to the newest version of Blogger since they query me on that everytime I open the site. I'm betting that sometime soon, they will just trash your stuff if you don't get with the new program.

2 and I did a three mile run at 4:00 this afternoon. It was nice out and with the snow gone, the Shel route was available. It was cool enough that I wore gloves the entire time, but I had the baseball cap as opposed to the stocking cap. Pretty nice for December 13th.

1 and Matt have decided on the reception location, a country club that looks very nice. Their investigation of possible sites was a learning experience for them. In an area like the Twin Cities, there are probably hundreds of possible places from which to choose. Getting through the process to find a place that has the right mix of atmosphere, location and costs is no easy task. If there was no budget to worry about, things would probably be less complicated. But the bride in this case chose her parents poorly, and they're both accountants to boot. The menu and wine selections have yet to be finalized.

1 also reports of another victory for her ninth grade girls. That make it 4-1 for the season. Not bad for a rookie coach.

I had a conversation with a Bettendorf girls parent today following last night's PV girls win in the girl-boy double header at Bettendorf. (The PV boys lost.) I volunteered that I had little admiration for the Bettendorf girls' coach, and I found it interesting that he was not so quick to criticize her. Apparently, there's quite a bit of that (criticism) going around about her, and he sees some overly-involved parents perhaps trapsing past that invisible line of good conduct. I never liked the way she talked down to the players. But he thinks she has matured some since her early days at PV. Whatever. I'm just glad I don't have to deal with those kinds of things anymore.

My 11th Day of Christmas memory is wheeling a cart-full of kids through the aisles and eventually looking at the angel figurines at K&K after Sunday church. Maybe, not exactly Christmas, but close enough for this discussion.

The Faculty Senate at Iowa gave a nearly unanimous no-confidence vote to the Board of Regents. This all stems from the unsuccessful search for a new U of I president that was mentioned here recently. Plus, the chairman of the Regents has made it pretty clear that he just really doesn't care what the faculty thinks. The Faculty Senate has no power or authority. The Regents' chairman has a rather distinguished record in the media business, both in Iowa and in New York. Among his other interests is majority ownership (I think) of the Iowa Cubs. I've always thought of him as a little too impressed with himself, but I have a highly respected client/friend who thinks the guy is top drawer. Again, whatever. For what's good for the U, I'd take his judgement over the Faculty Senate.

Have a great evening.

Be careful out there.