A tankful

138 miles and four Bay crossings today... once to take purplerabbit to the emergency room, then to Sunset and Port tonight. But that's four roundtrips across in five days... something like 300 miles. About $50 in gasoline, plus tolls. I give in... time to get a SmartTrak transponder for the bridge tolls :).

Today went well... good telecon with lots of progress to report, good meeting with Pascal, favorable funding prospects, travel vouchers turned in, taking Dawn to the doctor, another good meeting with John Mankins about our next round of proposals. The house was in excellent shape and the kids behaved... Then a relaxing, friendly time at Sunset and Port.

fire drill

Is what we call a sudden flurry of activity, often with some decision at stake. Here, I had 25 minutes to come up with several information technology projects that would be harmed if our Arctic field season was cancelled. Thanks to a bunch of phone calls, contacts, a hallway conversation and x.500, I found two more (plus my own), wrote them up with substantiating information, principal investigators, and sent this all off just in time. One of the projects was one I'd never heard of before... I'm fast. And good at marshalling arguments and people in last-minute, high-stress efforts. (blows virtual smoke from fingertips ;)

We are now better than 50/50 to get funding, IMO. Tomorrow's the drop-dead date.