My Last Tuesday in Seattle

Today started in the usual manner.... playing tennis at 6:15 am until 8 with Robert Williams, Allen Gear, and Dick Shimer. This is mostly bang-bang tennis and it is a good workout. This past Sunday I managed to win all 3 sets with partner, Tim Kosnoff, but today Allen and I lost the first set by 8-6 and were tied in the second 5-5 when we ran out of time. It was a lot of fun and I do enjoy playing with those guys. They're really good friends, very competitive but very good sports and gentlemen. I'm going to miss them a lot.

The rest of my day was continued grading and preparation for my last class in Issues in Management for this period. Tonight the class had their big class presentations and they did a stellar job! I have seen MBA presentations that did not measure up to these adult learners, and I mean that. They had to develop a unique strategy for Starbucks using specific management techniques (BHAGs, Hedge Hogs, and SWOT) and each team took it in a different direction but each was thoroughly thought out and outstanding in its own right. I hope my future classes are this smart, committed and creative. They are from Italy, Romania, Ethiopia, India, and other places so it was multi-cultural as well, which added to its interesting nature.

The final presentations were made and we wrapped up just before 10 pm. These folks really deserved the good grades they earned and I thoroughly enjoyed teaching them. Somehow they found out yesterday was my birthday so they brought two chocolate cakes and some brownies and sang Happy Birthday to me... all very touching. I told them the first class that I could be bribed with food, so they came through in style. The new building we are in as of this last class is very nice with all the latest technology for teaching... overhead digital projectors, document camera, DVD player, computer, internet, etc. Very cool and very nice modern building.

I got home about 10:30 and am now starting to crash. There is much to do tomorrow, including shipping my BMW K1200LT in a crate to South Africa, sending some boxes of my school supplies to myself down there, and getting some things out of storage (mainly suitcases). It is now a full on sprint to the flight at 07:25 am Friday morning to Africa via Washington D.C.!