Saturday, June 30, 2007

Helping Lamar Smith find his Capitol tennis court


I am away in DC, doing the tourist thang with my wife, Jackie, my step daughter, Jen, son, Pete and daughter, Kate. Last year, Jen was a Congressional intern for Rob Bishop, (R) Utah, so she knew how to get a guided tour with one of our local Congressmen, Lamar Smith (see photo above). My daughter met him during her work and then helped his fall '06 campaign. It was kind of fun to have Jen along although our tour, as she did her fair share last summer. And, about two-thirds of the way through, Jen and our tour guide, Whitney Marion, had bonded. So, knowing that Jen knew the ropes, she let my daughter complete the tour for her.


For me, the highlight of the tour was to see my oldest daughter interact with others in DC, not only former staffers but her step sister and brother. However, I did enjoy Whitney's story about how her boss, Congressman Smith, tried to find the Congressional tennis court. Sure enough, there's a picture of a tennis court located on one of the office buildings in the Senate.

Whitney said her boss tried to find the court, and he's still looking for it, although if there's a tennis court, it has probably a security device in the ad court.


Having given tours in college to prospective college students and a few during my tour at Lowry as their chief of community relations, I enjoyed the work of Whitney as well as my daughter. As befits a summer season, there were a lot of other Congressional junior staffers showing their constituents the capitol.


(P.S. Kudos to Lamar Smith for his support of the San Antonio technology community, most notably the cyber security industry. I am sorry I am going to miss his presentation Monday in San Antonio.)

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