I'm still trying to get used to the new schedule. No more time for posting first thing in the morning, and I've been too tired to do it at night, so here's a catch up on the past week:

Friday, August 22, 2003 - Bob and I went to see the L'Opera Picola production of The Barber of Seville. I'm beginning to be a bit concerned about him. He managed to get lost driving down there. He dropped me off to pick up the tickets, so I didn't see where he parked. After the performance, we got lost walking to his car. He told me it was a good hike, but we seemed to be walking forever. When we got to Diversey, he decided we were off course. We finally did find it. Glad I was wearing comfortable shoes.

Saturday, August 23, 2003 - I went with Janis and Joanie to the dedication of the portion of Milwaukee Avenue named for our dance teacher, follwed by a luncheon at La Villa. Later that afternoon we hosted the annual Choir Barbeque. In spite of some folks being away on vacation, there was a good turnout, and everyone seemed to be having a good time. My usual pre-party jitters of "Nobody's going to show up" turned out, as usual, to be unfounded.

Tuesday, August 26 - I tried out the beauty salon in the next building and got a haircut during my lunch hour. It's the first time I've had anyone but Julie cut my hair in about six years, but it sure was convenient, and Melissa did a nice job. It saves a Saturday morning for me, driving all the way to Six Corners.

Wednesday, August 27 - Dawn and I got together with Mary for lunch. Just like old times when the three of us worked at Sabratek. Mary works just across Higgins from where we are. Next time we'll have to think of someplace better than McDonald's to meet.

Friday, August 29 - I talked to my daughter and found out that she had gallbladder surgery a week ago on the 22nd. Rick took the week off from work, and Diana is doing fine. I knew she was going to have it, but I didn't know when, and she negelcted to call me before she went in the hospital. Fortunately, it was able to be done laporiscopically.

Saturday, August 30 - Bruce's father passed away, and we attended the funeral Saturday morning. Bruce was best man at our wedding, and his wife Joan is the daughter of the minister who married us. They live in Texas, and Chuck visited them while he was on his three week "meander" this summer.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at a Troop 979 Boy Scout reunion picnic honoring Russ's 50 years as Scoutmaster. People came from all over the country for this. Today at church the gymnasium will be named in honor of Russ.

I needed time to walk for exercise. I needed time to read. Both those things came to me this past week in the form of my company's move to its new office space. I now walk 10 minutes to the bus, read until I get to the end of the line, take the Blue Line one stop and walk 15 minutes to my building.

My company is renting three floors of one of a complex of three buildings at Higgins and River Road. The workspaces are constructed in such a way that everyone has natural light, much different from our place in Skokie, where most of us never knew what was happening outside.

It's all beautifully landscaped, and there is a plaza between the buildings with chairs and tables for dining al fresco. Our building has a full-service cafeteria, and the next building over has a Wall Street Deli, a florist, a copy place, a bank, a hair salon and a health club. Our floor also has a "cafe" for those who bring their lunch, which I managed to do all last week. There is a refrigerator, two microwaves, vending machines and about ten tables.

The move went pretty smoothly. My department was in the second phase of the move, and the third and final phase is happening this weekend. All my boxes were waiting for me Monday morning in my cube, and it didn't take me very long to unpack. The only problem was we weren't set up to print until Tuesday, and then Wednesday we were down most of the day due to a virus in the system.

Be It Ordained by the City Council of the City of Chicago:
SECTION 1. That an ordinance heretofore passed by the City Council of the City
of Chicago establishing honorary street-name signs to honor “Miss Geris Way” in
the 3400 block of North Milwaukee Avenue is hereby amended by changing the
honorary street-name signs to “Miss Mroz Panicko Way”.
SECTION 2. This ordinance shall take effect and be in force hereinafter its
passage and due publication.

The above is from the minutes of the Chicago City Council of July 9, 2003. The reason for the change was that Miss Geri wanted to honor her mother, who made it possible for her to fulfill her dream at the age of seventeen and open a dance studio. I took part in her 51st recital on June 14 of this year.

The ceremony for the street naming will be on Saturday, August 23 at 10:30 a.m.

I got a new headshot taken this year for the play. This is the first time I've put my own picture on my weblog.

I'm usually not very photogenic, but this isn't a really terrible picture. I mean, I think it looks a little like me. Quite unlike the photos I had taken at WalMart for my passport renewal. They had to take the shots three times, and I'm still not willing to use the final result. I don't think that was so much me as the photograher who didn't know what he was doing. I'll try somewhere else before I send in for a renewal.

I got my review today, and was quite satisfied with the results. Loretta had a lot of nice things to say about me. Unlike Denise, who reviewed me last year. She is less experienced at being a manager than Loretta is, and felt the need to try to find something uncomplimentary, just so it would look like there was need for improvement.

We got a call from Ben Saturday evening. He attempted to give us his address at Basic Training, but only managed to spit out half of it before he said he had to leave. What's that about? Chuck said that when he was in Basic, he sent a postcard home with his address. That would have been preferable.

Hosted a birthday party for Ariana, my two-year old grand-neice on Sunday. Chuck spent the whole afternoon grilling. I mostly tried to find a quiet corner away from all the strangers who had invaded my house. There was a violent storm for part of the time that dropped about three inches of rain in some places and snowdrifts of hail. We were lucky. We didn't get any water in the basement. Janis and others in Jeff Park got water up to the first basement step. I managed to escape the chaos at my house by 7:00 p.m. because I had play rehearsal. I couldn't miss, because they were taking publicity photos.

Got a call from Will very early Monday morning. He's being sent back to Iraq. Apparently, the new commanding general wanted to know where the rest of the unit was, and he wasn't pleased with the answer that they had been rotated back to Germany. Never mind that Will had already served a 7-month tour "in theater", a month of which was right in the thick of things. Just when I was starting to relax, now the worry will start all over again.

I went to the M.E.P.S. to watch Ben get sworn into the Air Force on Tuesday. He was really excited about leaving for Basic Training. I wonder what he's feeling right now? He'll come back here after Basic, and then go to a year-long tech school in Monterey, CA.

Loretta told me I was getting a raise, but I don't yet know how much because I haven't had my official review yet. I was late at my desk yesterday working on CED, and the head of HR stopped by, nosing around to see what I was doing there so late. I told him I was doing two jobs, Journal Billing and Credit. He said, "Bless your heart!" Whatever that means.