Weekly News & Views by: Jim Belenis
Photographs by: Ken Firestein
I know there are some of you that wonder what the pre-scribing rituals are for a GU&GO reporter.....
So here's a brief glimpse of what happens behinds the scenes.
Pen:check
paper:check
coffee:check
open mind:depends on the reporter (& the day!)
I can’t say it was a happy Friday because I felt $350 lighter in the wallet after I paid for my Oktoberfest tickets. President Rose Cholewinski got us going... We had a visiting Rotarian from the Downtown Sac Club, Brian Sway introduced Dave, and Vanessa Errecarte had a cute daughter with her.
Sway announced that everyone is invited to his pre-departure to the Peace Corps party on October 21st from 11am-1pm at his house. Feel free to stop by Mike Read’s Mary Jane store on F street beforehand for some party baking supplies. There were some last-minute Oktoberfest announcements from chair Tim Delaiden, but since it is over we will move on to the fact that… Oktoberfest went well. The wind died down just before the food was put out. The lights looked good, band played well, the food lines were _ _ _ _, and the beer was hopping! Tyrolean hats off to all Rotarians and volunteers that made it a great evening.
Weed Read’s dad, Tom, then reminded everyone that dues are due.Manny Carbahal introduced In pro per of the day, Irena Asmundson. Some of the following I’m inputting because Irena doesn’t blow her horn. She has been the Chief Economist for the CA Department of Finance since April of 2013. Before that she was the Senior Economist for the IMF for 7 ½ years. Her PhD in Economics, is from Stanford 
and her undergrad degrees from MIT are in Mathematics and Economics. Wow…
and her undergrad degrees from MIT are in Mathematics and Economics. Wow…She is one of six children of Dr. Ruth and Vigfus A. Asmundson Esq. Both her parents were at one time Mayors of Davis. Her Grandfather, Vigfus S. Asmundson was a UC Davis professor in Vegetable Crops and Weed Science (not the Read kind). Asmundson Hall on the UC Davis campus is named after him. Need I mention that this is a family of immigrants from the Philippines and Iceland.
Irena’s family history is fascinating. Her grandfather’s father died when he was two. His mother died six years later and he was sent to relatives in Canada. He received an assistant professorship at UC Davis in 1933. Irena, we are looking forward to your 100-year in Davis family anniversary party in 15 years!
She also talked about how her grandfather worked with breeding turkeys to make their breasts larger and their legs shorter. She lives in Davis with her 3 sisters. All of her nieces and nephews names begin with a Z. And she currently serves on the board of the I House.
My Lasik kicked in and I missed Carbahal’s brief sergeants segment. Oh but it was a real special sergeant’s…. Manny may (or may not have) made some even more 
inappropriate (than usual) comments, along with some of his usual inappropriately timed (and directed) jokes. Thank goodness we like him…
inappropriate (than usual) comments, along with some of his usual inappropriately timed (and directed) jokes. Thank goodness we like him… Speaker chair extraordinaire Bill Kopper introduced Bob Segar, not that Bob Segar, but the one who is charge of the UC Davis Aggie Square project adjacent to the UC Davis Med Center in Sacramento. To do Bob and The Farm justice please go to https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/aggie-square for all the info on this big project.
There were some great questions, followed by a draw of the day.