Anne had an easy day at school on Friday, maybe too easy. First off, she only had to work a half-day (always a plus on a Friday), although she only earned a half-day’s pay. That’s fine with me though. She doesn’t control when she is asked to work and takes every assignment that she is given. No, my complaint was with the nature of the assignment. Her assignment (partly) was the “Napping House”. The Napping House is in the former teacher’s lounge and is now used as the mid-day dormitory for preschool children that still take naps. Having a dedicated room, allows the school to set up cots and leave them set up. This is a great labor-saving innovation over the way that it use to be done.

So Anne’s job on Friday was to coax preschoolers into falling asleep, without falling asleep herself. Don’t laugh, this is an occupational hazard. It would look really bad to have one of your charges found wandering the halls and upon their return, you are found sawing logs in the Napping House.

Anne just came downstairs, asked about dinner and announced that she had just finished basting the crust. Since she was upstairs sewing, I was understandably perplexed. I thought that you basted turkeys not crusts.

Later this month, Dave is scheduled to fly to West Lafayette, IN, home to Purdue University. He is interviewing there for graduate school. To that end, I asked one of the younger engineers, who was a Purdue graduate, for a few suggestions of places to eat and drink in West Lafayette. He suggested the following: Harry’s Chocolate Shop, which is actually a bar, Bruno’s, a pizzeria that is “on the levee” a part of town near the Wabash River and XXX, a diner/greasy spoon and not a strip club. I sent these to Dave and he responded:

Thanks for the suggestions. It looks like everything will be scheduled ahead of time though. I’m going to get dinner with the lab and then the current graduate students are taking us out. The next day, will be interviews and tours. However, if everything goes well then those recommendations will be helpful next fall. Keeping fingers crossed.

Robin, to the bike-mobile!

The mercury on Friday climbed above freezing for the first time in memory and the forecast for this week is down right balmy. They are forecasting highs on Sunday of 50+ °F. Needless to say, there will be bicycling this weekend. Anne has a bit of a problem though; her favorite bike is in the shop. Our friend Phil is overhauling it for her. She still has “Big Red”, her hybrid bicycle, but even it is in need of some service, one of the shifters is broken. She may just have to make do with Big Red as is, because after weeks of freezing weather, a thaw is on tap for this weekend and who knows how long it will last.

I’ll leave you with one more bike related topic; Portlandia is an IFC comedy TV series starring Fred Armisen (SNL).  I have not seen the show, but here is a bike related clip from Hulu. I’ve only been to Portland once and that was at the tail end of our 1982 epic bike trip. We had lots of bike chops back then, but never actually exercised them in Portland. Our bikes were on the train back to Texas at that time, but that is another story. Our friend Sam squired us around there then. I’d like to get back there, although I do remember it as being very hilly. Anyway it looks to be an interesting show. Sam took us to the most amazing bookstore that I have ever seen, Powell’s. If you look closely at the begining of the clip, you will see it in the background.

Photo by Chris