Mt. Lebanon trip

Mt. Lebanon was a great place to grow up. And based on visits with Lisa Levine, Jimmy Joseph, and Sue McDonald, it's fine again. I really enjoyed seeing Pat Collins and her folks, Teri Coyne and Sue Burton at the booksigning, Eric Lindquist and his mom, then running around University of Pittsburgh in the east and Soergel's in the west.  It was great seeing my step-parents, Irene Dinning and Ray Johnston.

I guess I failed to get Eric's most recent picture even though we visited and drove around. So this last picture shows him to the left of "Glenn the Arab".  Jamie Kearney is the only other student in a tie.  Despite this being a '79 Lebo Log picture, I cannot begin to describe to you how much pain I was in, as Nevins Parkinson (not pictured) had dumped a table on my big toe several minutes prior, that toe at the time of this snapshot, was bleeding profusely into my shoe. After the picture was taken, I blithely asked, "so, who's up for taking me to the emergency room?" Ah, High School memories!

As to the lack of memories, Delta airlines gets full credit for leaving me on the ground at 1AM after all of the Reception festivities were over. Their response: "I understand the frustration you experienced when your plans were disrupted due to the delay of our flight for mechanical reasons. I am truly sorry your travel was adversely affected. Feedback like you have provided will help us to improve our overall customer experience. Be assured your comments will be shared with our Airport Customer Service leadership team for internal follow up.  We would like to be able to offer special consideration in such cases. However, we collect the applicable fares for transportation actually used. Under the circumstances, I hope you will understand that we cannot grant a free ticket as you suggested.Mr. Cohen, I hope I have been able to resolve any concerns you have about our service. As a loyal Delta customer, your business is important to us..."

Is my business important to them? Would you fly Delta? For many math and science folks Delta means change so I guess I'm changing (to another airline, next time for sure). Enjoy the memories and for those of you registered, the www.mtlebanon79.com site!

Thanks Lisa,

~ Fids

A month to the Lebo Reunion

It's been 30 years,

But my director's in-law is in critical condition at the hospital and the family has been asked to gather in Austin. The domino effect of this is, that now my boss and two co-workers are presenting up in Kilgore and that means I'll probably have no out for going to Pgh when I need to be in Richardson (ESC Region X north of Dallas) the weekend of the 16th of October.

What to do? ~ Fids

McNeil HS started today

Although Bonnie's already been at work for several days, Sarah had the beginning of school jitters. She went to Valente beach with friends, or was supposed to and wound up at our neighborhood pool, just as burned as if.

Sarah and her friend Sarah visited my sister, Mindie, in Palo Alto with my nephews Alec and Dawson. They were also supposed to go to Alcatraz, get on a boat, go jet-skiing on a lake, etc., but went to Stanford, Google, and a bunch of malls instead. They made it to Jelly Belly and maybe China Town and Fisherman's Wharf. Both of them have been non-stop and trying to get sleepovers. Sarahs love to upload pictures, text, and IM, but not much unpacking going on.

Bonnie took off time from work last week not only to pick them up at the airport, but get lockers and books. Our Sarah has pre-AP Physics, English 11, Algebra 2, Volleyball (then Basketball), a mentoring internship at Pond Springs Elementary, office aide, Microsoft Suite, and AP Psychology. I'm looking forward to the algebra to throw in with my Hebrew (321, Grammar) homework. I ordered the wrong books for Rebecca, because she could not get into HIS301F. Well, I guess I always wanted to read about ...Gilgamesh.

~ Fids  

Tennessee Ramblings

Thought I'd let you know that we are back safe and sound from Tennessee and it was like food; both corny and cheesey. The hicks and hillbillies were all over and. As for my family and me, we cooked every night except Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede, dinner with amazing trick riding. The rest of the show, North vs. South, was awkward at best. They even had a Tipesh/fool/clown interrupting all of the skits with his own brand of comedy.

The Bevo CAJE conferenne did not happen mostly due to (I believe a cultural) sense of invulnerability on the part of the MES, particularly the Israeli department chair and her admin. Maybe next year.

Adi's class on cross-cultural pragmatics is fantastic. I only then have Dikduk/Grammar class with Esther to look forward to. Work is still onerous with many people out and I'm picking up the slack as fast and as accurately as I can.

I decided in Tennesse on long early morning walks throught he mountains that it would be best to continue my career with the state for another 5 years and then switch the classes I am taking to paid so that I can get Math Teacher certified. Let's say that the mountain air was inspiring but the rest of the trip...not so much. Still, a lot of quality time with the family. How's your summer inspiration(s)?

All the best ~ fids

Regular Leg session over; special session on the way

Just got back from the Aloha picnic celebrating our long days, evenings, and weekends of calculating fiscal impact for 5 to 13 years for over 800 House and Senate bills, few of which became law.  The TEA School Finance managers pitched in, and in true Texas style, the only roasted pig may have been in the Elgin jalapeño sausage (not Kosher).  We'll get tapped on some of the juicier bills like House Bill 3646.  Most of my websites are refreshed, so I'm precoding for 2009-10 while I await federal narratives to post.

Really looking forward to hanging out with my girls

and my nephews

in Pigeon Forge; hopefully this special session is short and sweet. ~Fids