Par-tay time

[jamesq]

wendy_licious & wackynephews' annual tree-decorating party was last night. I had a pretty good time, and it seems that everyone else did too.

The day started early for me because I had to go to work (the noun), though not actually to work (the verb). The company is donating presents to an underprivileged family. At the same time, the companies annual computer surplus auction was taking place. I suggested that rather than auction off all the computers, we donated one of them to the family, along with a monitor and sufficient software to make it useful. The idea took off and I ended up having the computer left in my office so that it could be assembled. When I say assembled, I don't mean the hardware (which Sherrie put together) or the operating system (XP pro - Sherrie again) or the productivity software (Office 2K, you know who again). No, my job was collecting secondary software, games basically, and packing the whole shiteree up for the family.

That was why I went into work on a Saturday morning - my coworkers were in the other office (about a block away) wrapping presents, while I was by myself trying to get the computer and 19 inch monitor to fit into boxes not made for them, along with about twenty pieces of software. Because I was playing solitaire for an hour spending all my time making sure the computer was in good working order, I didn't actually get done until noonish. Did I mention that it was a morning meeting?

So I find a dolly and load up the big damn monitor and the big damn computer, wheel it out of the building and then two blocks out of my way along the roads instead of the snow covered path. Get to our other office and find that there's nobody there. My theory is that they did their stuff, had lots of eggnog then took off. I left the computer there for them to find Monday morning.

Had a few hours to kill before I had to meet Lisa, so I decided to walk home from work. There was a chinook blowing through Cowtown yesterday so it was a beautiful day for a walk (except I need a haircut and the constant blowing wind gave me a serious case of Bozo-hair. I wandered through the mall and liquor store to find gifts for the gift exchange (They very nearly got Cabin Boy, but luckily I found a copy of Wanking Life instead - Bruce suggested that Cabin Boy was the better choice. Time will tell).

Got back home and hadriel and I took off again to run errands. We picked up Jenny and went back to her place.

Now, I've been to Jenny's place before, but this was the first time I've ever spent much time there and I have a few observations: First, it's a pit. Second, it is a firetrap. Thirdly if I ever had to spend an appreciable amount of time living there, I'd slit my wrists from the lack of sunlight. I love you dearly Jenny so I can say this with conviction: Move.

Oh and in case anybody thinks this is some kind of moral judgment of Jenny's abilities as a housekeeper, don't. I blame the building owner for thinking that anyone should live in that space without adequate safety precautions. this from a guy living in Gareth's utility room (which has a window of code size in it BTW).

Anyway, we went to fetch Sheldon and pick up food and go out to the party in Airdrie. Four hours had passed driving - dang this city is getting huge. There was a medium sized group at the party this year, and a good time was had by all. I myself got kissed twice (I think I approve of this whole mistletoe thang) - three times if you count Mig (a cat). I got a cool set of cards in the gift exchange - they came in a hard metal container that could potentially be used for sunglasses.

I sampled several types of alcohol in my ongoing quest to find booze that doesn't taste revolting. At one point I poured myself a shot of Bombay Saffire Gin (I chose it because it was blue - little did I know the lying bastards tinted the bottle blue - the gin was clear).

I downed the shot. Thought "damn that's awful". Turned to some other guests to talk. a beat. My tongue suddenly felt like it was dipped in toxic waste and I immediately doubled back to the sink to have a big glass of water. Ugh. Nobody drinks gin straight, they told me. Oops.

The highlight of the evening (for me) was when wendy_licious gave hadriel a dress to give to Kirin - it was a kid's dress that had accidentally been placed in the adult clothing and Wendy had picked it up without trying it on. I bribed her to model it for her party guests. She came out in this TIGHT checkered dress that came about 2/3 of the way up from her knee to rear. It was very entertaining. The only thing that could have made it better was if it were a Japanese school girl outfit. There will be more bribes in the future, oh yes!