Subject: Weekend Update: September 22-30, 2002
Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2002 19:49:49 -0400

I sent an update last night but the vagaries of using my email
system with the hotel phone line just ate my homework without
benefit of saving a draft for me to try.  So now I have to try
to reconstruct the week again.

Jessica called me at work last Tuesday to tell me that she had
a sparkly thing on her left hand.  I received this as a voicemail
message, having stepped out at the time of her call so I didn't
understand her reference until later in the phone message.  David
Young formally prposed marriage to Jessica the night before.  As
I heard the story, he presented her with a new white Bible with
the ring attached to the ribbon bookmark. The ring has a row of
five diamonds with the one in the center a little bigger than the
rest. David becomes my son-in-law on June 21, 2003 and we are all
very happy for Jessica and Dave.

On Friday night, Miranda went to ENC to see her friends, and the
ring.  Emily went to play with the high school band at a football
game.  We took Andrew to Gym Night at the church, which left Joy
and me to take off on a dinner date.  I was going to have free
pizza at work but going on a date with Joy sounded like a whole
lot more fun.  (I had one slice to tide me over.)

On Saturday, Rich Gonzalez and I had the good fortune to be
going to Texas on the same day and catching the same flight
to Chicago.  (He went to Dallas and I went to Houston.)  I
took my sweet time Saturday morning getting everything ready
because it was an afternoon flight; different than the early
morning flights I often catch.  Rich and I got to the airport
and through security with enough time for him to beat me
mercilessly at a game of pinball in the airport arcade.  We
had not-a-few laughs in the very back row of the plane, but
parted ways at O'Hare.

When I got to Houston, I was to book into the Sheraton near the
airport.  I had forgotten my trip itinerary at home, so I grabbed
the first "Sheraton" pamphlet I saw in the Hertz bus.  My rental
car had a NeverLost global positioning system on board so I
plugged in the address for the Sheraton Houston and set out.
The GPS system is flawless - if the programmer gets the correct
address and the maps are up-to-date.  I had both of these in my
favor, but as I was travelling further from the airport than I
thought I should, I stopped to call home.  I got a busy signal.
There was nothing for it but to finish my trip into Houston and
ask at the Sheraton desk, "Do you have a reservation for Metcalfe?"
They didn't.  "Do you know where I should be?" I asked then explained
that I was supposed to be at a Sheraton somewhere!  After two calls,
they located the right hotel and I drove the same roads back to the
airport (using NeverLost).

I didn't mind terribly because I wasn't scheduled to see my cousin
Keith until the next morning at church.  However, when I called him,
he asked me if I would go out to dinner with him, Loryn, and Kyle,
and since I was doing nothing but getting lost, I readily accepted.
I felt bad that my miscues got us to the restaurant late but they
were gracious.

I hadn't seen Keith since the month after Joy and I got married
over 23 years ago.  He drove to the restaurant.  On the return
trip, Keith followed someone making an illegal U-turn, and the
fuzz was quick to turn on the blues and pulled us over.  The
Carl Winslow look-alike came over to our car and said, "Don't
you know that you're not supposed to follow the crazy people?"
He let Keith off with a warning but I wanted to say "U-turn?
We thought you had stopped us for the guns in our trunk."  But
as I said, it has been 23 years, and I'd like to see him in
less than 10-to-20 years from now.

We exchanged digital pictures and talked about our families in the
few short hours we had Saturday and Sunday.  Before church on Sunday,
I ate breakfast at Denny's Diner and enjoyed listening to the locals.
My waitress was very nice but she had a lot of makeup and certainly
wasn't afraid to use it.  Not everyone was overmade but I saw more of
it than I do in the Northeast.  The Sunday School teacher was
well-prepared and the choir sounded professional although I could only
hear them through the sound system (I couldn't hear their live voices).

After a delicious dinner, I bid them goodbye and headed south to
Galveston to attend a "Best Practices" conference for Publications
Managers.  The San Lius Resort is a posh hotel on the shore of the
Gulf of Mexico on Galveston Island.  My view from the 9th floor
is pretty cool and the weather here is pretty hot.  Half of this
trip is a boondoggle but the other half is helping me in my thinking
around taking my business to the next level, so I think it has been
worth the expense my company has provided.  And yes, the steak is
good here.

Congratulations to Jessica and Dave! WOOHOO!

Dad (Mark)