You ever have one of those weeks where you know you should have just stayed in bed? Please allow me tell you about mine.

Last week, I had an appointment on Friday to meet with a lovely young lady named Rebecca. She was putting together a conference at a tiny hotel here in DC and wanted to sell books for a couple of the authors she had booked. The tiny hotel is the Hilton where president Reagan was shot and is about the size of a small town. the authors she wanted to sell books for were Madeline Albright -- that would be former Secretary of State, Madeline Albright for those of you with deficient recall -- and a young lady named Jenna.

For those of you that didn't know, this is Sec. Albright's third book. Along with being one of the most powerful women in the world, she is an accomplished author who is very generous with her time.

This is Jenna's first book. Before writing it, she worked as an elementary teacher in DC and before that, She was just Barbara's twin sister. You may also remember her for being George and Laura's daughter. Yes, she is THAT Jenna.

It was a fairly big deal and after meeting with Rebecca and dropping off some of the books at the Hotel, I came back to the office to collect more and make another trip. Three trips in total to get all the books to the Monday morning event. I think my little car was as tired as I was after moving them all.

So that is all the back story.

Monday morning I rolled into work to pick up the last few books and my offsite kit. I thought I would park close to the office door because I had books to bring out and crossing our street is a challenge when you have the ability to sprint, pulling a trailer of books makes you a prime target for speeding-crosswalk-ignorers -- Small Aside. If there are any cops who would love to pad their numbers and make a tidy fortune for Silver Spring, come ticket people that burn through the signed crosswalk on Fairview and Spring. Millions to be made and pedestrians lives to be saved -- but there was no place to park. In fact, there were 5 times the normal amount of cars packed around the building.

So I parked like normal and walked in the front door to find puddles. A flood. Wee! Good thing is was just on this floor and not down in the basement where I work. Down the damp stairs, through the puddles to my very wet office. Stupid gravity! Why do you have to make water run downhill? So my office took a bit of a shower and the elevator is out of commission until all it's parts can be replaced/repaired. No big deal, how often do I need the elevator? Except for TODAY! when I have to lug forty pound boxes of books up three flights of stairs.

The event went very well, a two day sell-a-thon with lots of nice people saying loads of nice things about the two lovely and talented booksellers that were there. Okay, I made that last part up. After it was all over, I loaded all the unsold copies into my tiny car and we limped back to Silver Spring. I was not looking forward to the reloading of the books into the office sans elevator, but our genius staff here came up with the great idea of loading them in through the window! Done in no time at all with a minimum of smashed fingers and accidental deaths from falling down cement stairs while carrying forty pounds of books. Whew!

I would like to say that Tuesday ended on that bright note, but it didn't. I then had to run back to Dupont to collect books and make my way a the National Geographic event at 7:30. That one was going fine until someone watching the film passed out and was not responding. Ambulances were called, panic gripped the audience, it looked like all hell was about to break loose... when the staff at Nat Geo stepped in and sorted out the problem ~snap~ like that. You know, there is something to be said for having great people around.

Speaking of great people, Michael Farquhar has written another of his wonderful treasuries. This one is all about American heroes that might have escaped the notice of historians. You may have never heard of them, but they are paramount to American History and the shaping of our country. Most of the events he talks about happened right here in DC and I bet you have no idea about them. For example; Most of you could tell me who shot President Lincoln, right? Can you tell me the name of the woman who was tried and hanged for the crime along with the men who planned the execution? She lived right here in Maryland. She was the first woman ever executed by the United States Government.

I wont tell you who she was, I will let you pick up the book and find out about her and all the other "Foolishly Forgotten Americans" the Michael is talking about. If you are a fan of American history or if you just want to be the smartest guy at the bar for Monday night trivia, you should stop by Lansburgh on the 26th and listen. You might find out about some of the more interesting people that helped make your country what it is today.

If you were wondering what I will be doing, I will be sitting in my office with my three industrial fans blowing and the two dehumidifiers going deaf and trying to find all the things that got soaked in the flood. I will check in with you all in forty days. the water should be gone by then.