Several Yippee's

Gainesville

Yes, you're right, Mom, I'd have been more excited if it had been football, and indeed was when the Gators won it all in 1996. However, it is exciting just to be around it-- a contact excitement.

Like today. The secretary in the office is a wonderfully sweet and exuberant black woman of about 40, who's worked at the same job for 20 years (and I've known her for all of them). She's also a huge sports fan. Today around noon she burst into the office so excited she was about to explode. She'd heard that Joakim Noah, our quirky sparkplug superstar, was outside in the Plaza of the Americas. She'd gone down to see, and there he was, signing autographs. She grabbed a copy of today's Alligator and got him to sign it for her. Then she said, "Can I just give you a big hug?" Noah said, "Sure!" and threw his arms around her! She was so thrilled she was bouncing off the walls, and the rest of us who happened to be there were drawn to the energy. She's about my heighth; "I have no idea what part of his body my face was pressed against," she commented, which brought down the house.

We took our sweet time getting into work today-- Bill still strung out from the trip. He got home around 11:30 last night, and it was much later than that before we got to bed. It was a good conference, so at least he didn't waste his time.

This afternoon I FINISHED the 1947-48 Davidson box! I now know what is on every page in that box, which comics, which ads, whether they are at the top or bottom or take up the whole page. I still have most of 48 to enter into my little database, but that will just take a few hours. Yippee!! Now I have to make myself stop and have a long hard talk with a database expert before going further, much as I'm dying to charge ahead (to 1952) and back (to 1946) which has become my area of interest. If I need to redo things, better now than later.

I've about decided my San Diego project will be the ads. I've got a whole lot more of them than I do Smilin' Jack strips, and frankly, they're more interesting, and I have more of them. Especially since today I found something of a grail for the project: a signature of a well-known comics artist on an ad. "Browne" can only be Dik Browne, creator of Hi and Lois and Hagar the Horrible. All the other signatures have been of people who mainly became known for magazine cartoons. Matching up styles with artists has become a fascinating puzzle, and well, you know how I am about puzzles...

Which reminds me, I keep forgetting to brag about something. This week I actually finished a Sunday crossword... and in just two days! I don't think I've ever completely finished one before, and I seldom even try. And I only made one mistake (ok, it took up 4 boxes) -- better than I usually do with the dailies. I'm so proud of me.

But I'm going to be kicking my own butt if I don't get busy with the Atlanta presentation. It's a week from Friday. I've started the merge of UF-CC and the Library thing, but need to finish it and start reading practice. Countdown time. Tomorrow, working at home, should be good for that. Bill secured Carrot's reservation at her B&B, The Cat's Pajamas, and I will need to check on our ATL hotel in the next day or two.

Speaking of B&B's, Carolyn wrote tonight to say she's got hers in Gainesville set for May 19. It will be fun to see her again after nearly ... good god... fifty years. But I feel more like she's a new friend that I've only known for the past five years that we've been exchanging long emails. What an age of wonders we live in.

Perfectly glorious weather today-- wish I'd taken the time to go out into it. I could have given Noah a hug myself, he's made us all so happy.

So it's Spring in the frozen north too-- how rare that we get it at the same time. It's often already in the 90's here by now, and probably (certainly) will be soon. Oh well, at least the town's population will thin out a bit for the summer, and we'll have an easier time driving and parking.

It was fine coming home to a meal ready to go in the crock pot, needing only to cook another hour with the lid off to thicken it a bit. A Leanne take on Burgandy Beef. No kind of authentic, but we all liked it a lot and ate most of it. Bill likes most any kind of glotch, and I am becoming more fond of it all the time. Leftover glotch is the perfect comfort food for whatever ails ya', I've concluded. And so another week of cooking is concluded.

And so, to bed.
--
Sz Pepys