hey guys--how are you? i just got back from a long week in asheville, NC. this was the first week of this 9 week leadership training i am going to for the FS. it was quite a plane ride--through atlanta. what a crazy airport. and we started on friday night. spend a day and ahalf with our deputy chief and associate deputy chief. we went to the cradle of forestry on the pisgah national forest. where the first forestry school in the USA was. then visited the biltmore estate for a day--a castle in the middle of the mountains. what a place! i was with 40 other FS emmployees--i knew a few befor i got there--and knew several more when i left. we always have some place or toher person in common. in fact i spent some time with the former district ranger on the krassel RD, quinn carver, who knows matthew. he said his first encounter was rough, matt--the FS kid who fried the chinook for dinner? at any rate, i met some great folks. i'll see them all again in albequerque in january.
we've stayed close to home this weekend--david id dgo riding today cuz it was beautiful. i finished unpacking, ran errands, and relaxed after a week gone.
i used you guys in my first speech about myself. i said:"i'm the middle child in a family of 7 kids, so i've been speaking in front of an audience ever since i learned how to ttalk." that got a big laugh!
we hope all of you are doing well, and counting down to the end of the political ads in the light blue state to be done. this is pretty interesting.
even though we are bound by the hatch act we always end up talking at least a little politics when i get together with FS folks. oone of the guys said he heard "sarah palin can see the moon from her front porch, so now she thinks she can drive the space shuttle." oh man.
anyway, take care everyone--later

D,M,L,R