A great responsibility and privilege falls upon my shoulders: to host the New Year's Party 2009.
In the wake of Cline getting promoted to a job which unfortunately for us does not include 1000 acres for us to frolic in, I humbly offer to substitute my newly acquired house at : 3943 S Pin Oak Ave, New Orleans (Westbank)
We just had a small housewarming for the neighbors who barely drank any of the 2 kegs of beer we had, and each brought a bottle of wine as a present. We are therefore swimming in booze, come help us drink it and celebrate the end of one year and start of a fresh new improved one. Cline will be doing this in traditional Norse fashion. To participate it would help to bring something to burn that's weighing you down, or at least a symbolic representation thereof.
While I aspire to recreate the energy of the Cline parties of old, this is my house, so house rules:
No kids No cameras
No drugs No drama
That's not so hard is it? I want my place to be Outside the Asylum, away from the petty details of mundane life.
The year is over, it's time to stop keeping score, and reset the pins. Give up on trying to get ahead, and just let go.
Bring people who you are willing to vouch for their coolness. Bring supplies like you were going on an indoor SCA event. I have plenty of crash space, but not so many beds, so bring sleeping bags air mats etc.
We'll get started around 8pm. I look forward to seeing everyone there!

I've been trying to think of a good picture to post before I write, and haven't felt like taking anything lately. I finally buckled down due to overwhelming irony.



Full design seen best here: http://shirt.woot.com/friends.aspx?k=10894

It just came in the mail today, and I know I won't have much reason to wear it soon, as it's actually gotten cold.

Home: We're mostly done moving in... or at least at a fairly stable plateau. Nothing urgent is unpacked. We've sold a few of the things that we found we didn't need. I put up some christmas lights in the front window; multicolored, and I didn't notice that even though I all got them from the same carrel, that only two were twinkling. Andrea came home a few hours later with white lights to put up...

D&D: Some character deaths, but all fun. We seem to be in side missions while we wait for big things to resolve themselves elsewhere in the world. Brian told us that he would be taking over as DM soon, and we would all upgrade to epic level.

Work: Was too steady when it should have been busy, and now it's slow when it should only just have started tapering off. The communications manager was let go today; I was pretty sure it was going to happen, as she's pretty much a high-paid receptionist, and they could sort out most of her duties and get a normally-paid receptionist. I will probably be taking over some of her duties of working on the website. They brought a guy in to supposedly help the transition of getting the audit/invoicing done at the warehouse, instead of me doing it. He didn't seem all that interested on working on that aspect of our business, and I spent a lot of time telling him about the whole system; at least I finally got to go out to the "new" warehouse and see what it looks like. It doesn't look like I'll be taken off invoicing any time soon.

Other work: I was just contacted by the hospital again yesterday about some possible future work with them.

Other stuff: Andrea and her friend Chris wanted to go gambling at the new Pittsburgh casino last weekend, so I drove them over. I figured I could hook up with some friends for a couple hours, but of course with such late notice, everyone was busy. I did get to the old neighborhood for some Uncle Sam's, sight-seeing, and shopping. *** I've been playing around with Google Wave; I really like it, but wish others were as enthused with it. I've been trying to plan BR-Christmas and NYE-Mammoth Cave trips on it. Seems like it has a lot of uses once they make it more user-friendly. *** Andrea has gotten me onto the Wii Fit, though some sickness, busyness, and over-zealousness have kept me off it a coupe days *** someone at work get us frozen cookie batter, so I have made cookies, maybe I should have dinner

Movies: Andrea and I went to see Where the Wild Things Are a few weeks back. I really liked it, and wouldn't mind watching it again with some friends for some more analysis.

Books: Been reading a bunch of Pratchett, and finished a literary review of Discworld by Watt-Evans that I've been reading off and on for months. And then I started up on the Ethshar series as followup. Also been working on the Butcher's Dresden Files thanks to Andrea's Chris loaning them to us. I've listened to Stroud's The Amulet of Samarkand (read by Simon Jones) and Simmons's Hyperion, and just started on Martin's A Storm of Swords.