Morning all:

Well, well, well. Mid winter and already it’s been a fast and furious morning on Red Bud Ave. Coffee has been made, I have made a wild dash into the falling sleet to retrieve the morning paper, let Adrianne’s dog Shang out for a very quick constitutional, and then fed him. Adrianne is working twelve hours today and since we have a weather ‘winter advisory’ watch thought having one of our favorite canine friends spend the night the right thing to do. Anyway, coffee has been poured, so let’s get going.

It was a week ago that hometown boy, Pete Rose, released his ‘startlingly candid’ book confessing all and extending apologies galore. For those not in the know, Rose has a gambling problem. Baseball does not want tobacco spitting players and managers with very badly cropped hairdo’s betting on this sacred sport. What has this got to do with Dirk you are asking? Don’t bother calling Marcia to ask, she screens all calls – by having me answer the phone first. The reason is simple; I too am a gambler. Collective gasp. I have confessed to Marcia that I have joined the many unfortunates by joining oh so many others and handed over hard-earned monies to the office ‘bookie’. I am a number in the office Superbowl pool. Not only that, but placed money and an impossible score combination on an absolute wildcard, the Philadelphia Eagles. I’ll call around to see if the local Barnes and Noble can schedule me for an evening book signing. It has to be in the evening since my days need to be spent hanging around the office water-cooler; the place is a bit of a ‘gamblers anonymous’.

Marcia’s new furniture is beginning to become “us”. We each have selected ‘our’ chair and discovered the proper manner in which to drape our bodies over these. Marcia has ownership of the family room couch and can extend fully. I have the new leather chair. At first it was a bit uncomfortable since it’s much slippier that what I was used to – this caused my back to kink. Now that I have learned to properly hang my leg over the armrest life is good.

Marcia’s ticket came yesterday and she’ll be off visiting Kirstin, Vince, and Derek on the 26th. While she is gone I’ll get a chance to sneak some time on ‘her’ couch.

Have a great week.

Cheers,

Dirk