11/12 Home with some tired puppies

Quincy and Cookie have been asleep for hours already. Apparently they played really hard while I was gone--there were four other labs there over the weekend. So they had lots of big dogs to play with.

I got home around 5:30 with the dogs, and it felt good to come home.

The weekend was great though. It was so worth the money it costs. The presenters were so wonderful, witty, and downright funny. I especially enjoyed Bob Mankoff, the cartoon editor for The New Yorker, and Ira Glass, from This American Life on PBS and Showtime. They were both funny in person as well, and so nice. I got to talk to both of them, but spent more time with Bob, because his wife Corey and I hit it off, and we spent time chatting.

And it was great spending time with my friends Gloria, Larry, and David. Gloria was part of the program so I didn't get to see her as much as I would have liked. DF and I had fun together. It's always good to spend time with good friends.

I especially enjoyed that a few other participants thought we were married. It sure made us laugh!

Now, it's back to my regular life--must go to work tomorrow.

11/11 It's quiet now

All my friends and acquaintances are gone. But that's okay. I can use the quiet. It's been quite a weekend.

Yesterday our speakers were superb--Bob Mankoff, the cartoon editor for the New Yorker had us guffawing with his presentation on humor, especially cartoon humor. He and his wife Cory are really nice. I spent some time with Cory, just chatting. She was interested in the work I'm involved in.

A woman named Sue (I forgot her last name) spoke about gestures, and everyone had fun with that.

In the afternoon we played board games. I won at our table and got to take the game home. It's called Word Sweep and is so much fun. My fear is that no one will want to play it with me, except Rob. It's a great game though, and won't be re-gifted since I want to keep it. :)

The meals were all great and we got to choose from the buffet or order off the menu. I sure ate too much, and there were always several desserts to sample, including the chocolate fountain.

After dinner Greg Pliska had us running all over this huge, old hotel for a treasure hunt. You had to solve some very challenging puzzles to find the answers. My team came in 14th out of 24 (only 19 were able to completely finish). I attribute our late showing to the fact that we were the old codgers. David (my friend who often comments here), Joe (a friend of friends), and Jane and John Williams (he's the executive director of the National Scrabble Association and she is a vice president and someone I'm happy to call my friend). Jane ended up not feeling well, so it was the three guys and I. We had a lot of stressful fun competing. Wish we'd done better, but I was just so damn proud we finished. It was really difficult, and went from about 9:15 PM until after midnight.

During the day I was interviewed by a couple (Jennifer and Matthew) who are doing a documentary called Jokes My Grandma Told Me. They were basically interested in family humor. So I had a lot to tell them. :) They are interviewing a lot of people, and it was fun. Made me miss my siblings though.

Then about 20 of us stayed up late playing word games. I made it until after 2 AM and am proud of myself for keeping up. David and Dave (a great guy from Madison, WI) played until 4 AM or so, along with some others.

Will post about today later.

11/8 One year

One year ago today I left Milwaukee. My trip took me back home to Quincy, IL for several days. Then I drove to NC, arriving on 11/14, Rob's birthday. Rob and Beata opened their home to me for a few months while I did disaster mental health work for the Red Cross.

I stayed there until March 1 when I began the job with LSSDR in Biloxi.

Can't believe it's been one year since I left Wisconsin. One year since I've done stand-up. One year since I've done sketch comedy with BroadMinded. One year since...lots of things.

But I'm not sad. I miss all those things certainly, but I love where I am and what I'm doing.

Tonight though I miss my puppies. Am leaving very early tomorrow for New York, so I had to put them in the kennel already.

This weekend will be a ton of fun. Am going to Mohonk Mountain House in the Hudson Valley. Will try to post while I'm there.