Last week I called into the academic coordinator for my learning seminar I’m teaching at Capital University Center on June 17th to find out how many students are signed up.  Doing so helps me figure out handout count, demos I can do, etc…  Well, unfortunately, only 2 people were signed up at the time, and 3 people are signed up at the time of this posting.  There is a minimum of 4 people signed up in order to hold a class, so I have until Tuesday to find more students, or my class is cancelled.  Sadly, when I found out that there was a good chance that I’m not teaching on Wednesday, I changed my weekend plans from prepping to teach to anything but prepping to teach.  My luck, we will get enough people, but I won’t find out until Tuesday afternoon, so I’ll be in a mad rush to get things put together and the class will suffer.  Technically, I can cancel it right now if I want, but it’s not that much work, keep my name out there, and a quick 50 bucks for an evening, so I’m still hoping it happens.

In addition, I find out this past week that my new boss (ok, boss of a year) became the regional VP of an organization I belong to, and that he will be in charge of the 2010 Western region conference.  And unfortunately, both he and my former boss (aka the former president of the whole organization) have already said that most likely, I’ll be stuck doing a lot of the work in prepping the conference and making it happen.  i.e. putting presentations together, running the video cameras, webcasting, running the social events, etc…  While this sounds like fun somewhat, those that know me know that I’m not the most social, so setting up social events won’t be my strong suit.  But, most likely, it will be in Rapid/Deadwood (sorry Sioux Falls, but you don’t have enough things to do that out of state folks would be interested in), so I can make do out there.  Casinos, 1880 train, badlands, Deadwood tours, etc… all would be fun material.  At least I have a year to worry about this one.

Our annual golf tournament is changed around a bit this year too.  Instead of a large event, looks like we are scaling things back a bit.  For anyone that wants to play, looks like the end of July will be the tournament.  Rules are simple, 4 person best ball scramble, must use a driver from each member of the team on the front nine and back nine, all kinds of skins/prizes (and not for talent either, shortest drive won 20 bucks one year)…. oh, and drink a lot.  We’ve had 2 beer a hole players before that ran their cart into the clubhouse and other players.  That was interesting…  we loaded 9 people onto a 4 person team once, 5 people on one cart (2 in the cart, 1 on each wheelwell, one hanging on the back, and yes, we tried to roll the cart, didn’t happen).  Even had a guy get so drunk he took off his shirt, swung it around his head, and chased a “mink” into a sleugh by hole 12…

Who wants to play?  Oh, and if I hear anything about skeet, I’m mailing a bomb to Nashville.

Normally not a big fan of these sorts of things (forwards, chains, etc), but given some of the crowd I saw at the airshow back in May, I had to pass it along.

Mullets Mullets Mullets – A Link About Mullets!

And no, that picture is not me, but thank you Wikipedia entry for Mullet.

For those that don’t know, two things:

1.  In this town, the whole town focuses on the legislature during session.  All restaurants, hotels, etc… put every bit of effort into serving them, which makes life interesting for the locals.  From getting a seat in a restaurant to parking anywhere near the central part of the city (government campus), nothing is immune.  So signs welcoming these folks are not uncommon.

2.  There is a car sale in town called the Blizzard Sale.  It used to be a much bigger deal than it is today.  The dealership tries to break their sales record for one day on this day every year.  It’s always on a Saturday, and everything has to happen that day.  Trade in, financing, drive away…  they actually have every car numbered with a board with all the cars listed on it, and you get to be the guy that tears down the number when you buy it.  They actually have a mass of body shop guys on site to clean your trade in and put it on the lot that day to try and boost sales.  It’s called the Blizzard Sale because of the date it takes place, and because people actually camp out on the sidewalk in front of the dealership (even in blizzards) to make sure they get the deal they want.  Sometimes people sleep out there for days, like a Star Wars fan gone gearheard, to get to the 7 dollar car.

How do they come together?  The sale is nicknamed “BS”, and for 1-2 weeks leading up to the sale, the signs around all businesses in town display “BS is coming”…   I think it’s fitting.