Happy New Life!!!

I left The Times on 12/21/2007. I'd come slightly over 30 years earlier as a part time Customer Service Operator in Circulation. I needed part time because my son was very young. My husband Reg kept an eye on him while I worked those few hours. I found I was good at talking to people on the phones. We weren't able to solve many problems, however, because we had NO control over the delivery of the newspaper.

I learned a lot about The Times during that period. I became a supervisor and we all got to go out with carriers to throw newspapers and visit delivery spots to learn what agents had to deal with. Newspapers get to them very early in the morning. They assemble and bag the papers, check route lists and get the papers out by the biggest deadline at the paper, getting the paper on the driveway of our readers before 6:00 a.m. That department was eventually outsourced, but I had left years before. 10 years was long enough working with angry subscribers.

After that, I went to work with the telephone operators in Telecommunications. I learned a lot about the paper, but I mostly used my brain with my son's life. It didn't require much of my brain to work. In the last year there, I got to work on special projects. I helped put together a phone book that still exists. That was pretty fun. It was there that I learned that I was really good with computers. But while I was touring France for the first time, they eliminated my department. I learned a lot from the experience, especially about using all resources. A cool job in the Human Resources department was available and I got it. I still remember my horrible interviewing skills. Luckily, Jeanne could see through the "who cares" attitude.

I went to manage the Learning Center. That department grew hugely while I was there. We acquired the task of teaching all computer classes from, of all places, the HelpDesk. I set up a training center, hired a company to teach the classes and managed that process too. I even taught a couple of classes. We would go to the different printing plants to the satellite learning centers I set up there. I learned everything about printing the paper while there. My post was the San Fernando Valley plant. I'd go there once a week and learned all about web breaks and bundling the papers.

More fun was taking over the Summer Jobs Training Program. We hired young people from the community who had "high potential and low opportunity." I would eventually hire all the people who came into the program. We organized employees as mentors and supervisors to these kids and monitored their activity. We had classes and learning center time for them. We had a special orientation that was always a day of fun in the mountains. We also set up brown bag lunches so interns could learn about all the different jobs at The Times and the training or education needed to get those jobs. Was this the best job ever?

It was a magical few years. But one thing I've learned at The Times is that nothing stays the same. It was even before Tribune that Times Mirror decided to strip the Training and Organization Development department. My fabulous boss chose to leave instead of lead a stripped-down department, all the good stuff was eliminated. In my view, another department was worse than outsourced, it was keelhauled, thrown on the trash heap. I have never met a stupider group of people than those who made that decision. I limped through with them for several months until the HelpDesk picked up this Survivor from her raft.

I've been at the HelpDesk for over 7 years. And now its been outsourced. On the day I left, Sam Zell bought the Tribune Company. It looks like more fun things are around the corner for this great newspaper. I always said I wanted to leave before I closed down the newspaper instead of just a few departments. Does the sell count? I'm going to count it. It's quite a record.

My friends threw a great party. Clif and Idalia above helped see me off. Many more pictures are on my Picasa web site.

http://picasaweb.google.com/pnorman811

When you leave the day before Christmas vacations, you don't get a lot of people at your going away party. That was okay with me. I'm too old to have too many people around, it confuses me. I was happy to see all who came by to say good-bye. Harriet gave me a lot of things to help me emulate my wonderful experience in first class. Cute. And many contributed money to see me on my way. It came in handy on my trip north. Thank you all. And thank you all for a wonderful life at The Times.

On The Road Again

I was able to go on a most excellent trip to visit with people from four of the other Tribune newspapers. The icing on the cake was that the trip started in Baltimore, not far from Arlington, my brother Eric and Cindy. Cindy's daughter was visiting, too, with her son Cael. Is he not a cutie? It was a really quick visit. Just long enough to become enamored with the 18 month old. Eric is good with him. He was putting on Cael's shoes and had to take a moment to give him a hug.
Eric drove me slowly up to Baltimore on Sunday. He says that Fall was late this year. It seems to have waited for my arrival, although Eric says it was even better the week after I left. We get changing leaves on our coast, too, but this was very pretty. We drove through the National Arboretum and saw this beautiful stand of trees. Nice.

Our first business stop was the Baltimore Sun. Very nice people. We listened to their complaints about the process and showed them the reports we had created to show how IBM is doing. We was Bill, on the left, and Avinash. Bill is my boss. Avinash is responsible for the Helpdesk in India. They got the brunt of all the complaints. Avinash and I got pal-ly in front of a different beautiful tapestry.

We took a train to Hartford after a morning of meetings in Baltimore. What a long train ride. It started okay, but ended up being a local once we got into Connecticut. It seems like a small state until you stop at every town. Avinash and Bill found this great "Bullet Train" on the right when Bill went out to watch Avinash smoke. That is NOT the local.

The folks at the Hartford Courant were great. They were in the middle of implementing the common news editing system. That's a very difficult process. I believe we responded to most of their concerns.

Then we flew down to Orlando. We met Jervonna from the Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel on Thursday morning. She had driven up very early that morning. I really liked her. Where was she when we were in India? She would have been great. She went with us to meet with the folks at the Orlando Sentinel. Same run through of complaint gathering and showing of reports. Did I say that Bill and Avinash got the brunt of the complaints? They were plentiful. I admire their professional demeanor in the face of that. Not an easy day. But we got a lot of good information to help improve our processes.

I got to see KJ again on Saturday. She had a foot operation that Wednesday, so she wasn't at work. Her husband, Steve, brought her to meet me for lunch. What fun. She is as easy going as she was in Bangalore. Loved putting Steve's face with all the good things KJ had told me. I didn't think to take their picture until they were driving away in Steve's truck. Great picture. I flew back in time to drive up to Sunnyvale to celebrate Thanksgiving and an engagement. But that is another delicious story. No pictures. Just know the food was great, the company was better and we are all excited about having two weddings in the family next year. My oldest nephew and my youngest niece will be married; he in March and she in May. MMMMMM. It's going to be a good year.

Around The Times

The new police station is being built across the street from The Times. It is amazing how fast this building is going up. All pictures were taken from the parking garage across 2nd street.

When I was in India, I liked to watch the construction because it was mostly done by hand. The floors were held up by an intricate weaving of thin poles until the concrete had set. It was pretty scary to think that when they were done, they became the apartment I was living in. Or one just like it. The apartment complex seemed to take forever to build. We would pass one every day on the way to work. I was so anxious to see the exterior of just one of the apartment blocks with the roof on. It was just not to be. I often didn't see anyone working on the exterior. I hope they were inside putting up wall board.

The top picture was taken September 20. Look at the pretty fluffy clouds. What a beautiful place to work. This fall is beginning to look like a keeper. The middle picture was taken a week later. Look how big that crane is. I have to be on the 5th floor of the parking structure to get the whole thing. When you are in the cafeteria on the first floor of The Times building, the crane looks like a sky hook.

This last picture was taken this evening. The sun is setting earlier. I'll have to go out at lunch to get a good picture. The building has grown a lot in two weeks. Now they have the elevator on the right running up the side of the building. We'll see how big it is in two more weeks.

Clif and I have become enamored of the Farmer's Market in front of City Hall. That's the pointy building in the background of my pictures. They have lovely produce closest to The Times. There are lots of food booths closer to City Hall. Clif has been hitting the Greek barbeque place. I like that, but this week I just stopped at the ice cream vendor (I've had spiced strawberry and mint chocolate nubs in recent weeks) and picked up some gorgeous produce.

Clif is standing just outside my officle. Do you see the cut out on the door? There is a long window in the door that people used to stare through. I found this cutout advertisment of an old friend. We put him in the window so he could look back and keep them away. I don't know if it's scared anybody yet.

Goodbye Brightness, Goodbye Darkness

Dean left on Friday. We have been preparing for leaving for so long that the actual leaving seems anti-climactic. It won't make Monday any less sad. Dean has always been a rock. He was my go to guy for a hundred things, not the least was all thing Mac. Maybe the leaving is different now that I don't need a go to guy, since I'm not answering calls. People at The Times do. They called him until the end about their Mac issues, because they knew there would be a long wait if the issue went to India and then the guys next door. Long, you understand is relative. My camera's battery died as I was taking pictures. This is one I took before I went to India.

Just as Dean was about to leave, I went to the publisher's birthday party for all who had a birthday in August. I must admit being skeptical about yet another Chicago flunky coming in to take a top position at The Times. Sorry David, but from our view point, the line is very long. And without knowing you well, you all look pretty much the same. Remember Bohica? I learned that before Tribune bought us. Change happens constantly, it seems, at the top of this newspaper. After Otis left way back when, we've had VP's and publishers flowing in and out like water.

They were all sincere and caring men (mostly - mostly men, mostly sincere.) You want to trust. You want to believe that they have the good of the paper in mind. Old initiatives fly out the window, new ones come in. Trust me, trust me, trust me. I really want to. I can feel the hope rising again and it is scary. We saw Sam Zell on Thursday. He may have just bought the Tribune. Boy, I like that guy. Hope rising. Then the party with David Hiller on Friday. Hope continues to rise as he quietly takes notes about comments. I don't think he did that to mark who was bad or who marketed himself the best (and that guy would know who he was because he came with notes. Imagine.) It was a great discussion. I hope all these birthday parties help David get to know all who are staying.

Because I left that with uplifted spirits to come down to the Help Desk area and bid Dean farewell. Goodbye, brightness.

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Someone asked how I find these books. I have no idea how this one got into my book list. It was written in 1980. This is the one that Adrian and I started to listen to on our drive up to Sonoma. Manchester is a very good author. He wrote biographies of Krupp, Churchill and McArthur. He also wrote two books that I remember well, The Death of a President about the day Kennedy was shot and Portrait of a President about Kennedy's presidency. He really didn't like McArthur as a man, but thought he was a master tactician. I bet American Caesar would be a good read.

And that's how you find strange new books to read. As for this one, it takes us island hoping in the Pacific Theater of Operation in WWII from the view of a very young marine. Manchester was a student at Amherst when Pearl Harbor was bombed. He joined immediately.

This is a well written story of that part of the war and about the men who fought the war. It also tells about the United States in the 40's and the 80's. He is writing from his perceptions of that long past time, but he also tells about what we were thinking in 1980. For someone who loves history, this is enthralling. You do have to listen to a lot of battle and killing. That isn't so easy. It's hard to skip pages when you listen. Another thing that was hard not to notice was his feelings about the Japanese. He talks from time to time about how they were just like us, determined, hard-fighting men. But then he calls them Nips and Japs. Am I too politically correct? He didn't say it nicely, he said it demeaningly. It gave a good sense of his feelings, take them how you will.

You also get a sense of his pride in America and its fighting men. This is from a man who lived through Viet Nam and could see how times were changing. I was happy to hear it end, however. There is only so much horror that one man and one reader can take.

Goodbye darkness.

Dinner With Dan

Amazing that the day I write a post about Dan having sat in Cynthia's chair, he wrote to say that he has a job working for the EDD starting August 1. We met at his favorite bar to celebrate his new status. His new wife Karen is with him. They have been together for 20 years and finally decided in April to make it permanent. Seemed a little permanent to me before this. Dan sent me this picture of the wedding. I think it's a great shot of the two of them.

Dan was my age when he left The Times. I was curious about how one manages with a year's salary and Times Mirror retirement money. He had the disadvantage of getting his severence pay in a lump sum. This time they are extending salary for the duration of the severence. This works well for those of us who have a year's pay coming. It wasn't so good for short-timers. Their lump would have been nice, not like doubling ones salary in a year for tax purposes.

It sounds like the worst part of the early retirement has been no reason to get up and seize the day when you don't have a job to do. That could be a problem. I have lots planned, so I don't think that will be an issue. But I do have a 5 month period before I will be able to drive the north country to D.C. with my Karen. Holy Cow. I just realized that there is yet another Karen in these threads. That must have been a very popular name in the 40's and 50's. Hummm and 60's. Sorry KJ.

I know someone who doesn't want his name to be in my blog. Ok. I don't use last names anyway. But what if I couldn't use the name Karen? There would be a lot of Madam X's running around.

I'm thinking that I might like to work part time for Festival of Books. Glen says he might have a job that would involve being nice to picky authors. Hummmm. I've been dealing with picky people for a very long time. And yes, most of them write. Would I want to throw myself on that spear? Being nice! Doesn't anyone know how hard that is? ;-)

The Black Hole

Monday was dismal. Cynthia and Gernard were gone. Clif had taken the week off. And another staff member was out. This left Idalia, Dean and I. We have been juggling our schedules so we can continue to help our friends in India and keep our sanity. Idalia is in her office. Behind her is the office that is Clif's alone, when he comes in. :-) It used to have Russ and Dan, too. They both left and Cynthia moved in. Now she is gone. So Idalia has a black hole behind her. She is smiling because I am being silly. We all feel these black holes

You wouldn't have believed that office with Cynthia in it. Her house must be amazing. Because her office had more decoration in a square foot than I have in my whole house. Clif will be very lonely when he returns. I sit in the office next to Idalia. This is my view when I look that way. On the other side of my office is the view that has been removed. Fred used to sit in that red chair, imparting his knowledge and friendship. Gernard sat in the chair on the left, but moved further left when Nigel left. For now, this is empty space, too It is so empty, the picture has been removed. May as well be. No reason to show a picture of a space where nobody sits.

This space on the left used to have Hao and Nigel in it. As I said, when Nigel left, Gernard took his desk on the right of this picture. We hate light in our offices. Most of the offices are left with only lights from the computers and the spot lights under the bins. We love it. It looks like we are gone and that's fine with me. But when Gernard was sitting in that chair and Hao had gone to Tech Support and the desk to the right of him was empty, this space was dead still. He was the quietest person I know. So although I miss his sweet-self, I can look over there and still imagine that he is sitting there.

For now, there are black holes to the left of us, black holes to the right. We stay focused on our goal - - retirement in 100 days. Or whatever happens in between.

A Sad Friday

They are really gone. I suppose it will be very evident on Monday. There will just be three of us in the room on that day. Idalia will be working the Service Desk, ordering people's computers and software. Dean will be chatting with (assisting) India on Instant Messager. And I will be trying to knit the lose ends of the project into whole cloth.

We invited all of IT and others to a final goodbye for Gernard and Cynthia. Shelli got two fabulous cakes. Not only did they look pretty, they tasted really good. My mom used to bake birthday cakes for the four of us. It was always the same, strawberries and cream for the girls and devil's food for the boys. We carried on that tradition.

It was a simple, sweet good-bye. Both will be taking time off to be with family and then finding that job that makes them happy. Cynthia says she wants to be a school bus driver. She is the most forthright, blunt, straight-talking person I know. That bus would be quiet. She is also the dearest woman. And very fashionable. I'd always ask her how she liked something new that I was wearing. Humm. I wonder if she was always honest. We decided that my next career would be to develop a fashion line for those without any fashion sense. Someone else suggested that the clothing line should be for men. They seem to have the least fashion sense, after me.
Cynthia is modeling the items that Laura from Chicago sent to me. The apron says "This Help Desk is Closed." The cup says "Call India." Everyone on Laura's helpdesk left Friday. That is the goal. Everybody out. We're moving a little slower - thank you Harriet and Bill. Laura is left alone to knit lose ends AND answer questions called in. Yikes.

I don't do Retail Therapy, I do Salon Therapy. I finally got my hair cut on Saturday. I will look good on Monday as I weep for the loss of my good friends. (okay, that sounds like they died. I believe both danced out the door. So maybe I'll just be weeping for me.)

Just a Day - Or Two

You never know what or who you'll run into at The Times. Yesterday I saw my friend Peggy in the cafeteria when I stopped for breakfast. I've known Peggy for an eternity and we have been Peggy/Peggy since day one. The cafeteria is great in the morning. They are building a police station across the street, so there are trucks and guys all down the block. Even if Peggy/Peggy hadn't been there, the view would have been pretty interesting. But Peggy was in the cafeteria to help out with the showing of the Stanley Cup. The Anaheim Ducks had won this trophy, the first time ever for a SoCal Hockey team. We were lucky enough to have it show up at The Times that morning. So I stuck around to see what a cup looks like. Silly me. The huge milk can looking thing was escorted by two gorgeous guys. One was the goalie, he's on the left here. The other was a not a goalie. I'm not sure what the other positions are in hockey. Probably forward and guard. Well, he was one of those. It was a good event. I understand that someone brought in a baby and got to take a picture of it resting in the cup. Bet that was a cute shot.

I had to leave before that would happen. How could it be so busy when my job is gone? There are no phones to answer. It is very difficult to answer the phone because people are looking for help outside the system. Sorry. But we are still trying to make all the applications and processes fully functional. I was kind of thinking about chilling a bit at work. Visiting friends. Having long lunches. Dream on.

We did have a nice lunch today. I forgot my camera. Too bad because we had a good-bye lunch for Gernard and Cynthia. Although it's sad to think of them leaving on Friday, it was good to have the HelpDesk and Tech Support staff together in one room. All at the same time. Since we weren't required to "man" (or staff, as I prefer) the phones, we could all eat and talk and enjoy each other. We had a good time. Moises played good-bye songs that had been compiled for another person's departure. Funny. A great way to say good-be to good people.

5 Days to Lift Off

When I was a kid, my dad was scout master. We went on hikes at least once a month (or so it seems.) He taught me not to look up hill when I hiked. Just take one step at a time and soon you will be at the top, looking down at the long-windy path you just climbed. That's what I've been doing for the past two months. This hill is so steep that it leaves me breathless. And now I'm nearly at the top. And, of course, I've been reflecting.



When I return from India, I won't be talking to all my friends on the phone every day. Yes, those poor, often angry people who call with computer problems are my friends. A friend in need is a friend in deed. That must be why I consider them my friends. Each conversation lately has been the last. But, because I've been just putting one foot in front of the other, it hasn't sunk in until today. Sad for the moment, but they will forget about us and I will be finding new friends.



Other than reflecting, I've been buying. Part of the steps up the hill have been preparing for 11 weeks away from home and familiar things. My purchases have been from the mundane (new clothes) to the sublime (a new camera) to the silly (a book bag full of chocolate.) First the silly: Suresh and Teena love chocolate and say the chocolate in India is not as good as what they can buy here. I love chocolate! They also just drink beer and hard stuff, not much wine. No chocolate, no red wine! Wine is too heavy to haul over there, but chocolate... that's a different matter. The woman who sold me the bars of Valrona and Scharffenberger and others thought I was crazy and was sure I was going to rush to the car and stuff the 3 dozen chocolate bars into my face. The goal is to make it last for 11 weeks. Or the duration of the flight.


The new camera is great. I took two pictures at work yesterday to try it out. This is the funny one that got me started about thinking about, really thinking about, leaving The Times. This goofy child is my great niece with goofy glasses. I say hello to her every morning when I turn on my computer. Nothing like a smile to get your day started right.



The second picture was of Dean. He graciously sat for a photo while we discussed how he cannot be sick in the month of April and will keep Bill informed about the health of the Help Desk while I'm away. Do you see this portion of my office? I like the holes in the wall. This was a series of offices and we really wanted to keep track of each other. It helps when problems occur in the network, you can hear bits of other's conversations. We became much more effective with holey walls.
So, 5 days until my plane leaves for India. Time to review the final documentation written by the guys from IBM, time to test the infrastructure from India to here, time to make sure that the new employee (from IBM) set up process has all the elements that I can help provide, time to make sure that the Citix environment that IBM will be using has all the elements that I can help provide, time to say good-bye to everyone. 5 days is not much time.

Argh! Technology!

After working with people on their computer problems all week, I came home Thursday to a laptop that won't turn on. Now that will need to go to some tech guy to fix. Since I'm leaving for India in less than two weeks, that doesn't leave me much time. Can't bore anyone else with how this puts me in a bind. It's not about anything important, just loading books on my ipod. See, boring. I'll figure it out. And I need to find Natalie's blog address. That was on that laptop. How can I see dancing Maggie???
At work we're finally getting over the major Day Light Savings Time fiasco. So whose computer is still messed up? Mine. I can't get the computer to see my contacts. I have distribution groups in there that I need to do my job. Oh, to be truly technical.
But it wasn't all bad. I got to give 3 minute reviews on Friday. They were due some time ago, but we have been so stressed and swamped I haven't been able to give them. I wrote them in November or December. You may gather that I love these guys. Telling them what they have done well last year is a pleasure. Most of them are leaving, so talking about their future was a little odd. Cynthia and I shed a tear. She was asked to come work with us when we had to let people go a year or two ago. She was sceptical, had heard that it was hard to work for me. We've become friends; she is a calming influence on me. Those who know her will find that amusing, but it is true.
I got my review, too. Bill didn't write it in November or December. Luckily, he'd written it recently. It was very nice. At least a couple of things worked right this week.

Are We Dying?

I keep reading about the death of newspapers. This morning I was watching my favorite TV show, CBS Sunday Morning. They did a full segment on the death of print. Even though they didn't interview anyone at The Times, they did show an article in our paper that mentioned Hiller. Amazing how you can see something familiar as it whizzes by.
It is certainly bad days. Our circulation guy is threatening us with treason if we don't subscribe. I stopped my subscription when I learned that our jobs were being outsourced. Long ago, I was the training supervisor for Circulation. I worked with a great guy, the head of home delivery Dave Stevens, on a few projects. He talked about all the care that was taken in getting a dry paper to subscribers, on time. Through talking with him, I realized I had to subscribe. One of the women who worked for me put together a product knowledge class for new hires. It was her idea and a great one. How can you sell your product (keep people from stopping delivery, in our case) if you don't know that product? She was right, Dave was right. That was 25 years ago and I've hounded my family to read the paper ever since.
What changed? Well, the paper. With costs so high, the content is lower. Favorite sections and features come and go at a whim. I know it isn't a whim. People think long and hard on these decisions, or at least I hope they do. And they outsourced the jobs of the people who hear about delivery problems and they outsourced the delivery jobs to people who deliver lots of different newspapers. Neither group has the attachment to The Times that the employees did.
Another old timer from the pressroom taught me BOHICA. Bend over, here it comes again. We would say that about the newest initiatives, because if you'd been around long enough, you'd seen them before. Marching employees through new initiatives to improve their problem solving or performance evaluating skills is one thing. But I'm getting a sense of bohica when it comes to the paper. Something else lost, something else re-worked to make it better. It's all just bohica to me.

This Was NOT a Gift

Okay, so these idiots in Washington, D.C. decided it would save folks on the east coast a few bucks in lighting costs if we would just all agree to move Daylight Savings Time up 3 weeks. What the heck, who could it hurt? I guess they didn't talk to their technical support people. Many computer programs are based on time, especially things like calendars.
We have just gone through 3 weeks of hell, getting all our employees moved over to a new Outlook server that will be able to support the time change. Our group worked as hard as they could; employees were as understanding as they could be, considering they had no email; but it was killer.
At the same time, we were preparing for the outsourcing to India. We've become very fond of Suresh and Teena, so their presence is not painful, just time-consuming. Here's some pictures that they took of our hard working group.
On the left we have from the left Gernard, Clif, Dean, Teena, me, and Idalia.. To the right from the left, we have Gernard, Clif, Idalia, Teena and Fred.
And below, we have Teena, Cynthia and Suresh.
We don't look exhausted, do we? This was early days in the migration marathon. By the end of the migration, Dean had been out with a bad back and I was at home unable to talk. I don't know what will happen with my friend Eddie's group. They were doing the front end work, all through the night for weeks. They must be running on threads of adrenaline. Yes, this was not a gift, nor a very good law. Who were those idiot congressmen, anyway?

A Trip to Chicago

I went to Chicago for a few days to visit with the IBM team there and to meet a couple of my soon-to-be fellow travelers. I learned a lot that will be helpful when I'm in India about some of the programs we do or will be supporting at some point. We are responsible for the Consolidated News Desk and I'm pretty familiar with that. Tribune is putting in another consolidated system - Discus - for Circulation. I learned a lot about that and understand how that will be working a bit better. The weather was hideous the week before, so I was a bit concerned about getting out and about. But it was beautiful. The hotel is next door to the Tribune Tower in a very pretty part of Chicago. Lots of good restaurants. I was very brave the first night and went out to Joe's Crab place. The food was fantastic. Ordered 3 appetizers and a lovely martini. One of the things I want to do in India is to show the wonderful food I'll be eating. So I decided to practice at Joe's.I know, doesn't that look appetizing! I was seated in the bar. It was very crowded, being ash Wednesday in a fish restaurant. I was alone at my table, highly happy because of the martini and my boldness in going alone. A nice dentist was at the table for a while. He was giving a lecture about some arcane part of dentistry at the conference in town. You never know who you will pick up in a bar. Well, Joe's is known for it's snow crab, so I got an appetizer. I was a little embarrassed to take the picture when there was really crab in these shells. Can't think of what emboldened me enough to shoot a picture once the crab was dispatched.

Oh, yea, the martini. These were my other two appetizers. A crab cake and, because I felt I needed a vegetable, artichoke's Rockefeller (stuffed with spinach and other good things I don't know.) As my friend, Rachelle would say, Oh My God. Actually that seems appropriate on Ash Wednesday. This was fabulous and way too much food. It became breakfast the next day. Not the martini. I'd polished off all those olives long before I hopped off that bar stool.

But before I left I meet some other visitors to Chicago, this time from Kellogg. I recommended this fantastic cheese cracker to them and started to talk about work. They develop new breakfast products. I guess they weren't thrilled with my oatmeal diet. Karen will cringe when she hears that I told them the evils of corn. Their eyes didn't glaze over once. They said they would be sending me tickets to Disneyland. I haven't received those yet. I guess you can't believe everything people tell you in bars. I hope they believed me about this cheese cracker.
The rest of the trip was all work. I'd stay so late at the Tribune printing facility, oddly named the Freedom Center, that I'd just get room service. I should have taken a picture of the wonderful blue cheese burger I had.