Morning all:

Another weekend, another bout of weekend showers. I just got started with this post when the newspaper guy drove by and tossed our morning paper into the drive. I made an immediate decision to race out the front door and dive into the rain thus avoiding having a couple of pounds of soggy newsprint being tossed into the garbage. Luckily I got the grass mowed last night.

This was my German week. Last Sunday I was to fly to O’Hare and meet up with four German executives. The plan was to visit sites in Wisconsin and then back to Cincinnati for some wrap-up sessions here. Sunday morning our European guy and translator called from Frankfort that he had passport problems and did not make the flight. “No problem”, I thought, “I’ll muddle through”. But that was before my flight was cancelled due to weather. My second flight also got cancelled. Now I was concerned since these guys had limited language skills and no idea what to expect. Finally I climbed into the Delta Crown room and started talking to the help and making phone calls. Call number twelve got me talking with the O’Hare Traffic Control tower. “How did you get this number?” a stunned voice asked. “Because I am a desperate man”, I answered. Anyway, that call seemed to be one of those sterling “breakthrough” events. I got them paged and advised them to have dinner and meet me in the lobby of the on-property O’Hare Hilton hotel. With a seat on the last flight out we finally got connected – after I ultimately located them at the Rosemont Hyatt hotel. What started with a simple meet at five, head for Avis and drive to Racine, ended up with getting into our rooms at 1:30AM. Now I am beginning to understand why the United Nations can’t function.

Our new family room-to-the-deck door is in! It looks great and the cats think that we put it in solely for their pleasure. Luckily I was home at the tail end of the week and managed to run audio wires for a pair of outdoor speakers through the framing before it was all sealed in.

All is well at this end. The only thing you absolutely must do is look at the latest pictures on Vince and Kirstin’s weblog.

Have a great week!

Cheers,

Dirk