Hot Dog and Beer(s)

It was a typical Friday morning ride on the levee today expcept that I was up a little early for some reason. I met up with Realdo and rode with him, and eventually Tim, down to the playground where I turned back to meet the group. The weather down here is still pretty nice, mainly because the humidity has been relatively low. The high today was probably in the mid-80s, but it felt pretty nice anyway. One reason it felt nice may have been that I was out in it by 1 p.m. with a beer in one hand, a hot dog in the other, and my feet up on the roof of the Green Wave dugout watching the Tulane - Southern Mississippi baseball game. We had a kind of "staff retreat" this morning and afterward headed over to Zephyr Field for some "team bonding." Tulane's baseball stadium is still undergoing renovations. When I arrived, I realized that I had brought my Iowa Hawkeye's baseball cap. Ordinarily that wouldn't be too much of a problem, but Southern Miss is the university that Iowa tried to sue because their team colors and logo are so similar to Iowa's. Not wanting to be mistaken for one of the opposition, naturally I had to buy a new Tulane cap.

Tulane's commencement ceremony is tomorrow and it's going to be huge. Both Clinton and Bush will be giving the commencement address and the arena behind the superdome will be practically full. I heard today that there will be a special "surprise" at the ceremony that is top-secret. I'm just guessing, but I'm thinking there's a good chance that the surprise will be an appearance by Ellen Degeneres since she just happens to be in town and just happened to have dinner last night with Clinton and Bush. There's a huge amount of media interest in this commencement ceremony, too. On a slightly related note, the son of one of the people in my office is supposed to be followed around by the Washington Post this weekend for the graduation party or prom or something of a girl he knows from one of the local high schools that was flooded during the hurricane. When they found out that he was a Tulane student they went crazy. Meanwhile, The Daughter finished her exams yesterday and called to give us the run-down on her current plans for the summer. First, she's off to Nassau in the Bahamas for almost a week with some friends, then she'll be back in Iowa, coaching a few days a week at a gym in Cedar Rapids. Then in July she'll drive down to N.O. and spend a week or two coaching at a gym in Baton Rouge, filling in for her old coach there. Then it's back to Iowa where she is hoping to be able to do a little volunteer work (aka "internship") in psychology or psychiatry. Sounds like fun!