It was 4:40AM!

And my alarm sounded because I was taking Reenie to catch her 6:30AM flight at San Jose. She got me in sweats, grungy and unshaven for her ride to the airport and I dropped her off at 5:20AM. Tom reports he has her in custody as I write this so she succesfully made it to Do Loot courtesy of Northwest airlines. My son wanted to know if Duluth really had an airport and I assured him it did. Now we have proof, Reenie arrived by air.

When I got home, Mary was still asleep and I went to my downstairs office for a 7AM teleconference with our German employees. I am the co-chair of a company wide Engineering and Technology (ET) conference being held in seven cities around the world over the course of about four weeks. We start on May 18 and hit Tokyo, Singapore, Taipei, Shanghai, Bangalore, Frankfurt and finish here in Silicon Valley. We have about 1,000 papers to judge, 1,300 attendees plus flying executives to various cities--its a logistical challenge, for sure. Obviously, my plans have been significantly changed and now I am only attending the local event here in Santa Clara. The rest of the organizing team (all three of them) will be tag teaming so we cover all the venues.

After my telecon, Mary was awake and made herself breakfast. As I noted previously, our cleaning service was scheduled for today so Mary and I finished the prep work that Reenie and Mary had started yesterday. They arrived on time and Mary then headed to her hairdresser for an overdue haircut.

Yesterday's diner was beer can chicken done on the grill. If you do follow the link, be sure to read the reviews about the recipe. And, yes, we do have one of those $5 holder thingys that make sure the beer can and the chicken don't fall over. Mary said tonight's dinner will be a simple chicken salad with the leftover beer can chicken. Sounds great!

Mary continues to get stronger each day. She took herself to the hairdresser, fixed her own breakfast and lunch, and generally tackled a light day with great gusto. I am very glad the surgery is in 10 days, she will be so much stronger then.

That's all for now,

Pat