Xmas Parties, Various

One has spent the past several days getting well and truly into the Xmas spirit - well the feasting side of it at least, the rest shall have to come later.

It all began on Friday with the very important end of year Xmas lunch for the user group at our suppliers headquarters. Once again the user group insisted on holding a meeting beforehand, but finally after several hours drawn-out with productivity we were treated in the manner to which we have become accustomed over the years. Many were in attendance - Supervisor Grand Chief K even put in an appearance to make sure that I received my just desserts.

After waddling home I was soon off to another evening of food and cards at the Double Jays with Salsa Girl by my side. The feasting was not too excessive there as I had an unexpected feeling of fullness part-way through the meal. Sigh, there's always next time I guess.


Saturday was the big event. The Library Xmas Party.

This years soiree was being hosted by Kiwichick (who's husband lucked out on not being able to use the get out of party card he earned by attending last years event). The catering was done by many with Days of our Libraries having many a hand in the comestibles.

The night did include a rather embarrassing tribute to the recent Facebook relationship-status change of the good Salsa Girl and oneself, replete with gifts unasked for but appreciated greatly - especially by The Tiger who commenced sleeping on our new serving dish the moment it was revealed to her.



The latest Xmas partying occurred when Salsa Girl and I made the trek to the family demesne to celebrate Freeloading Mum's birthday. There was a dash of Xmas thrown in due to known Xmas day absences. A magnificent feast was on offer, including 5 desserts (which only count as 3 as one mixed several into the same bowl).
There was rather a lot of post feast tiredness to be dealt with on return home before getting the evening meal squared away.


In unrelated news, one's past month of increased exercise regime appears to be having no effect at all.
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The Tragedy of Pizza-free Poker

Sigh, bX-1fv8xl, sure is playing havoc with my regular posting schedule. Although some may say that it is merely acting as the enabler of my laziness... I can't be bothered responding to that acusation, it would take too much effort.

Anyway, here's one I've been preparing for a week or so:

This Saturday last (now Saturday, Saturday last) myself and Legion2 made the great trek out to MrRogers new-ish abode for a poker night that had been in the scheduling for nigh on half a year.

Upon arrival we traversed our way via secret stairway to the basement location of the festivities to find BestFriendSincePrep and StumpyRudolph already in attendance. As it was a completely reasonable hour of the evening, and a tradition of poker nights, one suggested that we order pizza to satisfy ones lurking hunger. You can imagine how taken-aback I was to be told "nah, we already ate before coming over".
As the evening progressed and further participants arrived,(The Electric Tiger & The Wiggs)  they joined in the chorus and also took up the new refrain of "just eat the chips and chocolate". Which is all well and good if they'd just leave said chips to me but seems a tad hypocritical as they continued to take great handfuls of one's rapidly disappearing sustenance.

In the end I made it through the evening none the worse for wear and may have discovered a new diet sensation - although Salsa Girl seems to be disagreeing with one about that insight.
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Five Minute Meetings

So, on ones return to work this week one was required to attend an important hour of one-on-one training in some new web based software.

Having attended a group information session I knew that said web based software allowed us to:

• log in to the site automatically
• see an edit button if we were allowed to edit the page
• fill in the text box and click OK to make changes

Understandably as a web coding geek of some pedigree I was looking forward to some in depth training on said web based software and, dare I dream, even some under the hood secrets.

Arriving for the meeting I discovered that the caller of the meeting was off looking for me at my non-existent desk in The Castle (I work in a completely different building (and state of mind)). Upon my instructor's return we sat, instead, at their desk and commenced the training session.


"So with the new web based software you can":

• "log in to the site automatically"
• "see an edit button if we were allowed to edit the page"
• "fill in the text box and click OK to make changes"

 "Okay, we're done here. You can go now."

I did ask a few inane questions just to stretch it out to five minutes before heading back to my work, shaking my head at the waste of everyone's time.

Still on the bright side, one did feel that one was well and truly back at work...
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Holiday Haze

So it transpires that when one is on holidays for weeks at a time things such as, say updating one's blog, actually become harder to make happen.

The very astute of you may have noticed that The Tales has been rather quiet for the month of October and much of this month as well. So quiet in fact as to have been non-existent. Well, as of this post, one is rectifying that oversight.

Such a lot has happened that one's usual highly-enjoyable ramblings could well go on for many a page and exhaust even the staunchest fan's endurance. Therefore I shall recount the happenings in bullet point style in order to regain somewhat of a regular posting style.

One has been through:

• the horror of a Grand Final loss endured with The Great Sandro fretting that a lead of 40 points could be lost in the final 2 minutes of the game while Legion2 and I tried to accept our tragic loss. This understandably took away one's will to blog for many days afterwards.

• the horror of putting myself through yet another of the The Viking Hat GM's fiendish D&D days. Albeit made easier by being held at Exploding Ninja Pony's new awesome Man-Cave (or Geek-Grotto if you are one of those pedants who prefers accuracy).This understandably took away one's will to blog for many days afterwards.

• the horror of realising that accepting Salsa Girl's Facebook declaration of our engaging situation announced it both far and wide and that "Facebook Friends" do indeed see what you display there. This one nearly confirmed one's Facebook shyness.

• the horror of another training day with free morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea . . . wait that one wasn't so bad. Understandably one was too bloated on returning home to conduct any blogging.

• the horror of having to set up one's new computer after the old faithful failed to respond at all. Of course this one made it rather difficult to get blogging done.

• the horror of realising that holding our sixth annual Absent Friends card day meant that we've been without an old friend for more than half a decade...

• the horror of yet another interstate conference junket with the threat of too many LibraryLand cocktails looming over one's head. Even Gamer Phil from an adjacent library service running gamer games in the evening couldn't help one from having many a drink thrust into one's hands (and yes, I do have to drink them). Still I managed to come through okay - at least from what I remember...

• the horror of another of our card tournaments where my cards refused to shuffle up in any sort of normal distribution pattern.

• the horror of a planning training morning timed to end before lunch so we can all head back to work! This one had me distraught for days and unable to commit any blogging activity.

• the horror of going to Geelong for another conference and, well, being in Geelong. The hotel gave me a room overlooking the stadium of the team that had so recently defeated one's Magpies and the trauma returned blotting out any thoughts of blogging.

• the horror of an afternoon under The Bastard's control in yet another irregular game. Maybe I shouldn't accept all these offers...

• the horror of ... ahem, the bliss of a week away down the coast with Salsa Girl. Time spent reading. playing Rummy, walking along beaches and cliffs. One did make an attempt to blog in the peace and quiet but that bX-1fv8xl error did in my mobile posting ambitions.

• the horror of a feline neglected for a week that decides the attention it is due shall be collected at 4am. Sleep deprivation makes one decidedly low in motivation to think up another of one's brilliant blog postings and high in motivation for disciplining The Tiger.

• the horror of BestFriendSincePrep abandoning one to make an international move of a few years and support his wife's career. Really, where was my opportunity to have a say in this decision?

• the twin horrors of a day of Gaming at the State Library (organised by Gamer Phil) followed by a regular Sunday's gaming. So many games to choose from, such little time...

• the horror of realising one has only a week remaining of one's holiday before having to dive into that mound of email and meeting invites.

• the horror of facing up to the construction of a huge update to the sadly neglected Tales. This one, especially, made it hard to get any blogging done.

Phew.

Regular service shall resume shortly.

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