TGIF

Messieur Bernard treated us to lunch Friday at the 303 after a gruelling week reformatting the budget. Actually I had escaped the work but was included in the reward. We started with a round of Urquell, a Hungarian pilsner beer. This was especially sweet for me since to everyone's surprise I had not had a drink since Sunday. I was just seeing if it could be done. The waiter did a little trick of tipping the glass on the table using the neck of the bottle. Bernard started a commotion by jerking forward to catch what he thought was a falling glass causing Markus to follow suit. Les and I had seen this trick before so we were cool, telling the waiter we can't take them anywhere. Les had a healthy salmon salad, I had a tasty Philly Cheese steak sandwich and Bernard special-requested pasta with shrimp sauteed in olive oil and garlic. He said the only thing better would be to have the shrimp with the heads. Les the accountant ordered a bottle of Franciscan Merlot and now we were the only ones in the restaurant. I'm glad I had turned my cellphone off - my trailer buyer was calling for me from the office and that would have spoiled the relaxed enjoyment.

So, my patient Craigslist buyer was still waiting when we got back and I closed the trailer deal. $900 cash for a trailer I bought for $1000. It was a better investment than stock. As he left the parking lot, I observed that my license plate was still on the trailer but he was not looking back to see me waiving for him to stop. I got his telephone number from my cellphone missed calls, and fortunately he answered his. I met him at the highway interchange and retrieved my plate for disposal.

I went out to our remote storage to retrieve some files in the fresh air. Finally got back to the office at 4 p.m. for a productive afternoon, including a short nap to ward off the Merlot effect.