Making the most of it!

Last night, I met up with Grace (LFM/LGO '08) at her place right near the University of Michigan.  I write LFM/LGO because, prior to being called Leaders for Global Operations, LGO was Leaders for Manufacturing (LFM).  We had dinner with her kids and husband, and then the two of us went to a U of M Hockey Game at Yost Arena.  I was excited to my hockey fix since the NHL is still under lockout ::sigh:: the Red Wings' home opener would have been tonight...  Anyway, although U of M ended up losing to RIT last night, it was a great chance to talk to Grace more in depth - both about her experiences while in the program and her experience working at GM.

Front facing phone camera photos are grainy, but they also make sure your heads show up in the picture :-)

Grace, other LGO alumni, Sloan alumni and MIT alumni that I have run into here have all been great.  I had lunch with four MIT folks at the building here in Pontiac where I work (one now always says hi if he sees me around the buildings), Mike Peterson (LFM/LGO '94) came by for lunch and I have had meetings with Kurt Wiese (Sloan Exec MBA alum, now executive director of vehicle body at GM).  I even reconnected with a Sloan alum here who I met at a Sloan on the Road event when I was applying!  Finally, I have scheduled some time to talk with Diana Tremblay (also Sloan Exec MBA alum).  Diana is the person who makes sure LGO internships at GM get funded and she came to our future of manufacturing conference in May.  A huge thank you will be going out to her.

Other both literally and figuratively cool things that have been happening since I got back are:

It's gotten much more fall like - had one morning this week where I scraped off frost on my car

Nevertheless this yellow convertible corvette owner was still making the most of it (even though the cloth top was definitely up)

Saw this Asian badged Chevy in the parking lot

The left half of the car says Sail and the right half is a bunch of Chinese characters -  hopefully meaning something like  you should drive this lucky awesome car.  Perhaps though, it just means sail, plus some other trim or feature information...

And, on Tuesday the 9th, we had a visit and presentation from Chevrolet's team of Indy Car drivers.  I wasn't able to be there for the whole thing (or for the poster signing), but having them show up and talk was still pretty cool.  I have not watched car racing by myself/for myself, but, due to living for almost two years with people who did, I was familiar with a number of the driver's names due to those previous trips through the living room while races were on.  No joke - one driver's name is Will Power.  I'm sure his parents loved choosing that one.

Since the Red Sox are on beyond out of contention in baseball this year, I'm rooting for my local "home" team.  I'm excited that the Tigers have advanced to the ALCS and also that their next opponent will be from the eastern time zone, because watching them play a three hour+ game in California starting at 9:30 PM EST when you need to wake up early is just kind of miserable.

Headed to a Cider Mill this weekend to celebrate fall!  Yay!