Morning all:

““Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things.”” — Henry David Thoreau

The heat is killing me, and I can’t turn it down. Hello from the Hilton at Easton in Columbus. Marcia and I are here for the weekend (more about that later) and because it is a hotel room and quite early, in deference to a sleeping Marcia the little in-room coffee maker is still sitting idle. Coffee will have to wait.

Now the heat. The room thermostat has been turned down to 60 degrees, yet the system just keeps on cranking away. The next step is for me to throw it into A/C mode. I believe that the hotel night shift secretly monitors the rooms and are laughing their backsides off watching desperate occupants jam the thermostat’s controls about.

The hotel anchors Easton Mall, an upscale outdoor shopping concept which grew and grew to finally become a large shopping village. And no, we are not here for THE GAME, although last night the lobby was complete with plenty of Ohio State and Michigan fan activity. One guy actually showed me his prized, stonkingly expensive, pair of tickets.

Marcia and I are here for Kiwiplan’s gala Holiday weekend. Tonight it will be dinner at the hotel followed by our own version of Dancing with the Stars; complete with judges. Over dinner last night we discovered that many will be attending in formal black tie. I confided to Marcia that for the event I had brought along my cute “Volkswagen with a Christmas Tree on top” tie and socks combination. I have now been advised that we’ll go shopping as soon as it is light.

This afternoon we have the Presidential Suite where the eighty or so of us will be watching THE GAME. I am in charge of providing the large screen for us to watch the match-up on. It was supposed to be delivered yesterday. As of eleven PM it hadn’t arrived. As Alfred E. Newman used to say, “what, me worry?”

Make it a great week everyone; study the do’s and don’ts of holiday attire.

Cheers,
Dirk