Springfield, Missouri is the perfect sized city for me. The population is a little more than 150,000 people, and it has a good mixture of dining establishments. It is about a three hour drive up I-44 to St. Louis, and Kansas City is a tad bit closer to the Northwest. It is the perfect size city, with the big cities close enough to enjoy. Last week this city was shaken to its foundation. Hayley, a ten year old girl that lived within 10 minutes of my home was abducted in broad daylight. It was 4:45 in the afternoon, and there were witnesses. A man pulled up in a gold truck, asked her for directions, then grabbed her and pulled her into the pick up truck. One of the neighbors chased in his car, while the others called the police. They had the license plate, a description of the gold truck, and a detailed account of the man that grabbed the little child. The Amber alert went out, within two hours they had arrested the man finding 10 year old Hayley with a bullet in the back of her head, her life snuffed out by evil. It was a sobering evening, followed by a couple of weeks that a grieving community was left to try and make sense out of the tragic crime. It was a sobering week in small town America.
I wish I had better news to report on the Rodz front, but the good news is that there is an update. I talked to Sarah at the State Department on this past Wednesday. She informed me, that Rodz's immigration file was shipped in a "Diplomatic pouch" from the Philippine's to Abu Dhabi on February 7th. Well, then she informed me that the Diplomatic pouch would take 4 to 6 weeks to arrive. It looks like March will be another month of waiting. My good friend Vineet (you remember Vinny the Pooh) has agreed to drive Rodz to Abu Dhabi for her interview when it finally gets scheduled. I guess we are making progress, just feels painfully slow. Poor Rodz had to go to the Iranian hospital in Dubai where she was treated for a respitory infection.
She keeps plodding along, patience is a virtue that she seems to have much more of than me.
The big trade show happened last week in Dubai, and I heard from several of my old friends in the UAE. It was a year ago last week that I gave my 30 day notice, and began the process of coming home to America. I am so happy that the harsh winter is winding down, the return of spring training baseball games as a harbinger of what is to come.
I feel like I am in a rut with work, but I am very happy that another new chain came on board for me. Fenway Steakburger received their opening order last week, and I am very excited to have been a big part of the first one. Finally, the really depressing news. My BMI is 29. That may not sound like horrific news to you, but to qualify for the lowest rate of insurance I now have to attend four weeks of fat class. The next four Wednesdays I will be amongst the heavy weights at work, where they will try and convince me that Lucky Charms is not good for you. All I can say is....Sigh.
See you in two weeks, with a hopefully lighter blog.
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