September 28

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The 28th was the day the Institute for Social Research has a lunch for staff.  Retirees were specifically invited.  I walked downtown and had lunch with my buddies.

The tables were decorated with construction-related items.  We wanted to keep the centerpiece, but were told they would be wanted for other affairs.

ISR is building a fourth wing.  The original building was built in the 1960s.  My dad worked for ISR from 1958 to 1967, in several different buildings, ending with this one.

(Note how few windows there were in the original building!  They learned their lesson; all of the newer wings have lots of windows.)

I'm not sure when they built wing 2, but that's where my office was when I started working for ISR in 1983.  The next image is the west side of the building.  I had wall-to-wall-to-ceiling windows, looking west over Ann Arbor.  An unobstructed view, all the way to the horizon.....

Wing 3 was built in the 1990s, and now wing 4 is underway.

It looks like it will have a green roof.

This, believe it or not, is a cake.

I've watched "Ace of Cakes" on the food channel -- I've seen cakes meant to look like buildings, animals, cars.....  This is the first time I'd seen one in person.  Pretty amazing.

I'm told it was good.  (Luckily the person who built it was there to cut it.  She knew just how to take it apart without ugly demolition.)



I had fun chatting with a lot of former co-workers.  It turns out that one of my bosses and a few of my co-workers are taking a class through Coursera on User Interface Design, or something like that.  They said my class sounds a lot more strenuous and "more mathy" than theirs.  I bet it's more packed with interesting content, too.

Lunch was very tasty.  The people who brought the food were clearly invested in it (carefully explaining their special barbeque sauces, etc) and it was good.

After lunch, I went to the bank to get some signatures notarized (for my volunteer gig).

I really need to get some new shoes.  I think the comfy supportive whatever in the old ones has given up the ghost.

My feet were hurting, so rather than walk home, I took the bus.

This was taken from the bus terminal, looking southwest.

Waiting for the 9.  Looking straight up, with the post office behind me (top), and a parking structure in front of me (bottom).

It was a gorgeous day!

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