Whatever you say, sir/ma'am.

The morning started off badly enough, when we had to pull the pavilion tent out of the lake because the storm the night before broke the ropes attached to the stakes that held it to the ground.

While eating lunch, the equipment manager phoned me and said that we had to set up the discus and shotput areas for the afternoon's track meet after all. (The coach had told my employees the day before that they wouldn't have to do it.)

While I was picking up the shrubs which the Empress had reserved at the nursery, the Athletic Director phoned me and asked, "Can we move the lacrosse game to the stadium? The lacrosse field is too wet." Oh, and can we repaint the lines on the field, too? (This was about 3:20 p.m. My crew leaves at 4:00.) When I pointed out that there was a track meet scheduled for the stadium, the A.D. said, "It's not a meet; it's a scrimmage," as if that would make a difference in having two disparate sports using the same space.

I delivered the plants, rushed to the stadium, and found my crew already had un-set up the discus area and halfway through painting, with the equipment manager trailing behind them, continually apologizing for his boss and the lacrosse coach (please note that the lacrosse field wasn't any wetter than the two soccer fields, and neither soccer coach, who also had games scheduled, was complaining) and, I'm guessing as an act of contrition, carrying the spare cans of aerosol chalk (which we use because it's easier to remove from the fake grass than so-called temporary paint) for my guys. (Three track teams, including our own, had already arrived at the stadium for the it's-not-a-meet-it's-a-scrimmage. I have no idea -- nor do I care -- where the lacrosse team ended up playing.)

Then I got back to the shop, where the employee who had been on vacation for a week to attend his wife's grandmother's funeral was waiting to tell me he was resigning. There was a bunch of paperwork, naturally, but at least he returned all his uniforms.

You will then understand why I was in the mood to pig out, so I went out to dinner.