Jim and Steggy

Hi everyone. Just a quick note to say that I won't be posting about my experience with Andre today until considerably later, due to having to wrangle my boy Luke. Once I rassle him into bed, I'm good to go (wife Lisa is still away on business). However - it was a most satisfying day, as I hope to explain.

Turns out that all kinds of heavy hitters were present, and that friend of Ray Stonada (what's his name . . . Jim Courier) had the honor of introducing Andre to the March of Dimes lunch crowd (Andre was honored by March of Dimes as male Athlete of the Year).

But a lot more on that later. . .

Standing around chatting with Jim and Pat McEnroe, I asked Jim how his recent Outback Champions Tour event in Houston went. He said it was great, but somewhat frustrating because of the way the River Oaks crowd bought up all the expensive boxes  - but then attended only sporadically. "It was a glass half-full, glass half-empty thing. We did very well selling the boxes, but the attendance didn't reflect it. . . Wait! What happened to Steggy? I was looking forward to meeting her."

"I'm not sure,"  I said. "I told her to go up to you, it was all arranged. I think she got cold feet. You know, she's pretty shy, underneath it all."

"It was funny," Jim said. "I kept thinking she's got to be here somewhere. One of the interviews I did was with this woman. When I sat down, I asked,  'Are you Steggy, by any chance?' Turns out she wasn't. Oh well, maybe next time."

Of course, after I left the event, I called Steggs and told her Jim was wondering what had happened, and she hemmed and hawed and then kind of defensively explained, "I told the press wranglers that I wanted to talk to him, honest . . . But. Well, I did see him a lot, like 500 yards away. And I thought of all the questions I would ask him. Honest!"

"Wait," I said. "You kind of mental telepathy interviewed him - at 500 yards? What's wrong with you darlin'?"

"He was so busy!"

Pete rolls eyes in taxi

"Steggy. Reporters are supposed to be pushy. They're supposed to ambush subjects. They're supposed to go aggressive. I mean, he was waiting to meet you. it's like  you were ducking him. Steggy: *It's supposed to be the other way around!!!!!!!

*Steggy hangs head

Then she says: "Well , I did write about how that royal blue shirt didn't do him justice, and then the next day he was wearing navy blue. Much better." Her voice brightened. "Maybe he read that!"

Geez. Women. Go figure.