Verona

Summer rain tapping on my window in the pre-dawn hours was all the excuse I needed. As I drifted off back to sleep I was already planning a morning stop at the local Starbucks and hoping they were brewing my favorite dark roast, Cafe' Verona. A few hours later, my official stainless steel travel cup in hand, I was rewarded when I saw it on the chalkboard. Verona always reminds me of my two months of Katrina exile in Jackson, LA. We would travel all the way in to Baton Rouge to get coffee to make at the house in the mornings before work. It was one of the few real luxuries we allowed ourselves at the time, and even now that first sip takes me back to the house on College St. and the basement office the hospital. Two years later they've just started to rebuild my local bank branch office and the local news is still dominated by Katrina-related stories, but on the university front things are definitely looking up. Fall freshman enrollment at Tulane, and indeed at most of the area universities, exceeded expectations, and faculty recruitment, although challenging, no longer seems such an impossible task. Research funding at Tulane for FY '07 was up - much better than expected - although considering the lag time involved and faculty loss we're a little worried about what this fiscal year will ultimately look like. The bottom line, though, was that even with a significantly smaller faculty size, Tulane's research community has been able to not only sustain, but actually increase the amount of research funding (i.e. grants) it can attract.

I got an email from Tim a little while ago offering a ride up to the Pepper Place Criterium in B'ham, and I'm thinking I will go. He'll certainly need some company for the long drive back home after the 8 pm Cat. 1,2,3 race. It seems like forever since I've raced. Last night I decided to set the saddle height on Courtney's Cervelo TT bike she's lending me for the upcoming LAMBRA time trial, so I broke out the old metric tape measure and was surprised to find that her saddle height was precisely the same, down the the millimeter, as mine. Granted, I may ultimately need to make some adjustment because of the steep TT bike seat tube angle, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's not necessary.

So anyway, I seem to be feeling kind of optimistic this morning. It's probably just the Verona.