Claudia wasn’t there for Pilates this morning and my home phone was out all weekend because of the storm so I didn’t get her call cancelling our session. We were excited today about the arrival of Mercedes Caral. Mercedes is a partner in the Barcelona, Spain, office of the Jausas law firm. Much of her practice is devoted to international commercial arbitration. Professor Kelley met her and suggested her as an excellent choice to teach a class on International Commercial Arbitration. I stopped in her class to meet her, and warmly welcome her to Arkansas. We are so fortunate that she was able to come to Arkansas and share her expertise with our students during this intersession course. We look forward to a continuing relationship with her and appreciate her enriching contribution to our curriculum.

For lunch I met Dean Reed Greenwood. He’s been a good friend to me since I first arrived in Fayetteville, so it was great to spend time with him. His deanship encompasses a broader constituency than mine, in that his College includes Curriculum and Instruction(CIED), Education Reform (EDRE), Health Science, Kinesiology, Recreation and Dance (HKRD), Rehabilitation, Human Resources and Communication Disorders (RHRC), The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing (NURS), and The College of Education and Health Professions’ Honors Program. We visited about how to maintain balance in life and deal with difficult issues or people. We had a long conversation about that and he told me different ways that he’s handled things over the years. He’s a very good listener and has been a manager much longer than I have, as he served as Associate Dean and in other administrative roles before assuming the deanship. It is helpful to have a friend who shares his experiences and helps me think things through. I appreciate Reed for spending that time with me (and for picking up the tab for lunch). We ate at Ella’s and I had the sorority salad and he had the soup and salad combination. The sorority salad is pan seared romaine wedge topped with hazelnut-crusted chicken breast, herbed tomatoes and blood orange vinaigrette. Not my fave.

I had to dash out of lunch for a meeting at 1:00 p.m., which was followed by my favorite thing in the whole world (NOT), a visit to the dentist. Two weeks earlier I’d lost a filling and hadn’t been able to get to the dentist with all the various events and activities. My appointment was for 3:00 p.m. Once there, Dr. Henderson gave me the good news that there wasn’t much filling missing and the hole was very shallow. He said I wouldn’t need novocaine and it wouldn’t take long to fill. Dr. Walt Henderson, my dentist, is great. His specialty is people who have dentist issues like me – those who are chickens. He’s really smart and always makes me laugh. He follows Arkansas politics and the judicial races. We had a long conversation (as much as possible when you’re a dental patient) about the Arkansas races and the presidential race, although the conversatiWeidmanon sort of went like, “What do you think of the presidential race?,” and my response was “Wah, wah, wah, wah . . .” Truthfully, I don’t know how dentists understand one word their patients say, but he’s very good at interpreting. As much as I dislike going to the dentist in the abstract, I do like my dentist very much.

After that I had to dash back to the Hembree Alumni House for the reception for Greg and Rosie Weidemann. They were leaving us to go to the University of Connecticut. The reception was very emotional. A number of people spoke praising Greg’s deanship. They shared with us what a wonderful and warm couple he and Rozie are and spoke of their contributions not only to the University, but also to Northwest Arkansas. The Weidemanns have endowed a scholarship in the College of Agriculture and Mark Power announced that it will be renamed the Greg Weidemann Scholarship. It was a really good event and they received many warm wishes. They were presented a beautiful cobalt blue glass bowl on behalf of the college to take with them. It was meant to reflect the colors of the Connecticut flag, blue and white. They also received a very beautiful Tim Ernst print and the book in which the print was featured as well. It was apparent that tWeidman Giftshey had mixed emotions about leaving. We will all miss them and we wish them well. What a long, full day! And, since it had already been a long day, it made sense to stay late and work to catch up, right? So that evening I read through e-mails that had piled up, returned phone calls, and drafted letters. It was a good feeling to see the piles dwindle.

One of the things I did while working late on Monday evening was to get the pictures from the bar swearing in ceremony posted an album in my Facebook account. I also created albums for the staff appreciation event and courtyard progress. So, for those of you with Facebook accounts, take a look. Check it out.