Man, I cannot believe this... I feel so sophisticated. Here I am, a couple hundred miles from home, and I'm still doing Diaryland. Here, from the Hot Springs county library. And this will have to be brief, since the meetings resume in 25 minutes.

So, for those who care, I am here. Beautiful place, been here before, but glad to be back.

This is a "bi-ennial Divisional meeting", but the first we've had since 1990. At the opening, one of the hosts pointed out that we traditionally introduce all the new employees that have come on board since the last Divisional meeting, but since most of them are half-way through their careers now, what's the point?

This is one of those, by western standards, high class meeting sites. With cloth table covers, water glasses with a mint under each glass, and breaks with muffins and cookies.

Great cookies. Chunky chocolate chip, soft and chewy.

They say 118 in attendance (or here, anyway... not all attend). Of those, guess about 15 females, and over half of those are administrative. With long careers and slow turn overs, it takes awhile for demographics to change.

The first speaker was introduced with his biography, but the host (subconsciously?) amalgamated his Bachelor's degree and Master's degree into a single "Bastard's degree".

Really.

Good way to start the meeting.

Of course, the power point show didn't work like it is supposed to, but I've yet to see one that did.

First pic was a grizzly sitting on its ass staring at a sign.

The sign was

"CAUTION. Bears are Dangerous. Do not approach.. $5000 fine". A real photo, not a cartoon. Is he trying to figure out that his next date will cost $5000?

I need to do a better job of reading the agenda's for these things ahead of time. They intentionally left this am free til 11:00. For canoe trips, golfing, tennis, or a tour of the dinosaur museum and quarry. So I use the time to read the Billings paper in the park, listening to yellow warblers, and sitting here in the library.

One speaker was heckled to put on a hat so we could see (his hair is going fast). At least no one has a comb-over that I can see. But there are several gents who have yet to remove their cowboy hats.

When folks come to your meetings, does everyone sit in the back and slowly fill up towards the front? Ours always do. I like the front.

Why, in the middle of this state, does the host hotel not have clipart of elk or mule deer? Their elk is a caribou with the antlers erased and elk-like antlers drawn in free-hand. Their mule deer is a whitetail, again with free-hand antlers (and not good, by the way). They have a great clip of a hippo.

Dinner last night was barbeque outside beside the pool and hot pool (naturally heated, by the way), after/during the kegger (net total for the night:3 kegs). Especially enjoyed it when the sulfur fumes from the springs came wafting in. I love the smell of sulfur. And Yellowstone is so close now!

Besides "you're" and "your", another pet peeve of mine is "utilize" or "utilizing". Please explain to me any time these words need to be used when "use" or "using". would not do.

Anyway, not one use of the dreaded "utilize" words yet in this meeting. That's rare!

They do have a new peeve for me to complain about... "co-mingling". That got used a lot (as in between bighorn sheep and domestic sheep, which is a bad thing). How do you "co-mingle"? You're either mingling or you're not. You don't "co-mingle."

Well, this has been fun, but gotta go and start the meetings.

Oh, and for those who care, driving north from town I was shocked to see that Corky's truck is gone! He finally came and got it! (Or someone else decided it was worth the effort to steal).