Labor Day weekend

We spent Friday evening at work, trying to get the Ethnologue finished. It is taking so much time to take care of so many details. Now G. is trying to find dozens of copy editors who can read the 558 pages twice to find all the missing commas and things like that. He sent out an email plea to all of Academic Affairs and hopes on Tuesday when we get back to the office lots of people will volunteer to help. Some people already started over the weekend. My assignment is the first 33 pages of Africa, and it is in 8 point type, so I can hardly read it. I've only finished page 7. Ugh.

Reports from Washington DC are pretty good. D. went to the big Presbyterian church yesterday. He said that Conilizza Rice and John Glenn attend this church. He found they don't have high speed internet but rather dial up, so that isn't good. His car cost over $600 for repairs :-( but he did find out that he gets a $100/month metro pass for getting to work. He enjoyed his retreat but said he didn't understand much of it at first, and this was the first time he had been around so many smart people. He said they are all foreigners, only the student interns are Americans.

We talked quite a while to A. on Saturday. He was getting kind of lonely. He tried to buy a new office computer, but hasn't succeeded yet. He's trying to buy a pickup truck. He's trying to find a house and office to rent in Awassa. He did meet the US Ambassador to Ethiopia. He seems to enjoy hobnobbing.

R. was sick last weekend, and sick again this weekend, but when I talked to her today she was doing better. She has a couple classes this year with massive amounts of reading, something she doesn't do well with. But she always tries hard, so she will make it. She will be writing her big project on literacy.

Yesterday we spent the afternoon at the home of friends from church who live on a lake. I learned how to drive a jet ski and took Gary for a ride. We also went swimming and boating and had a fish fry. Tonight we went to our friends house who live in Arlington and had a picnic with them. Now I need to get back to editing the Ethnologue.