Tag Archives: Party

Feb4

New Years 2.0

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Saturday, 11-January-2015

 

As is traditional, I hosted a party near the beginning of 2015… NEW YEARS 2.0!!

The story behind having another New Years party is the same as the last few years:  It’s from the few months when I got the chance to live in New Zealand. I had a friend who, a few years before I met her, had a HORRIBLE New Years. So bad, that it was decided that it didn’t count. Her friends just sat her down and said, “That didn’t happen.  Forget it.  We’re doing it again.”

So, clearly, time itself was reversed, and New Years happened again.  But better this time, of course.

 

In all honesty, it was a pretty tame party.  Chirag and I got together early in the day to get everything ready: I’d bought most of the stuff before, but him and I did a final shopping trip to top off our snack supply, then we bent down to cleaning up the house and putting everything in its place.  My roommate Lizzy had the flu, unfortunately, so she was holing up at her boyfriends house for the week trying to get better, and not infect everyone in the world.  So Chirag and I busted everything out, and made the house 110% presentable.

The party mostly stuck to the downstairs and the back yard – even though it was neatly 15 degrees out, we still had a fire and roasted marshmallows, turning them into smores and using the cold to our advantage, in regard to keeping drinks cold.  Not a huge advantage, I admit, but enough of one that we can call it a win if we don’t think about it too hard.

 

The real fun of the evening came a little after we finished with the fire and came inside – one of my oldest friends (Mike Casey, aka Big T) was in the kitchen!  That is generally terrifying, but in this case it was pretty amazing, since he was supposed to be down in Connecticut, maybe three hours away.  Instead, he had snuck a quick drive in after he got out of work, and made it up to Boston in time to join us before popping the corks on the Champagne and downing a few glassed for New Years 2.0

After the toast, the party unfortunately wound down pretty quick.  Folks went home, T and I chatted, and everyone generally tapered off to sleep.  T crashed on the couch, and Chirag hailed a cab home… though we did all meet up again the next day for Breakfast, and hitting the movie theater to watch the 3rd Hobbit movie again 🙂

Jan8

Christmas in Arizona: Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

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A southwestern Christmas – Vacation in Arizona

Sunday, 22-Dec-13 through Saturday, 28-Dec-13

 

 

Tuesday, 24-Dec-13

  • Moving and relaxing… nice and slow morning, with Bacon and Eggs and English Muffins for breakfast. Damn. I need to buy English Muffins for home… that and lots of butter.
  • Relax for a bit, and help prep everything for the Christmas Eve party happening later on
  • Help Dad with some random little bits of yard work – not much, but just enough to get the blood moving and such. It’s good, and I’m actually quite impressed at just how many leaves can fall in Arizona. I mean… cactus, right? Wrong. Fig Trees. And they drop a TON of leaves. But still nothing compared to Medway back in High school.
  • Catch some sun while reading and relaxing… I think I’m going to get a sunburn at this rate. That, and dehydration. But you know what? I so don’t care.
  • Rehydrate with water and coffee, and have some lunch. Light, but delicious. More fancy sandwiches. Seriously, we put so many different things on those that I think we needed a special license or something.
  • Relax in the sun a bit more, then we all get changed (glad I brought that nice button up shirt) and head over to church for Christmas eve services. They’re not bad, and we have a good bit of music, even one guy who’s (from what I hear) a rather famous country singer. I’m not 100% convinced on the sermon, to be honest though. I think I’ve been spoiled by Rabbi Jaffe – he has amazing and provoking sermons, whereas this was basically just what I’d expect from a Christmas service. Not a bad thing, but… still. (Note to Ed: I need to do a post on Rabbi Jaffe’s sermons)
  • Meet everyone, and meet two of the newer folks in this group: a man named Greg, and his wife Cindy. They’re retired, from Oregon, so we chat a ton about travel and adventure and such. I hear a lot about Oregon and specifically the Columbia River Gorge… I think we need to go out. That, and Smith Rock and Mt. Hood.
  • As we leave, a quick snippet of my conversation with one of the guys, “Hello! Good to meet you! You’re Fred’s son, huh? So tell me, how long have you known Jesus?” … “Well… never, honestly. I’m a Jew.” <talking> “Well thank you, I appreciate your honesty” etc… Not bad, to be truthful. I’ve never been straight-up called upon to validate or affirm my faith as a Jew. And now I have been. And… and so I always will, I think. Yes. If only everything was that simple, right?
  • Home again home again, jiggity jig… To the ham that Denise has been cooking all day. And damn that is amazing ham! We slice it up and set about putting huge trays of basically everything out for the folks coming over. Snacks, cheese, crackers, drinks, etc…
  • More relaxing, then people show up for the evening of hanging out!
  • More talking about Oregon, etc… and a bit of Engineering and talking shop; don’t really get to talk with any of the others. Were a few kids nearish my age (one 16ish guy, one ??? nearmyageish girl) but didn’t really get into any conversations with them, for one reason or another.
  • More chatting with everyone and eating of delicious food. People brought lots of stuff of their own to add to the pile, and we have LOTS of excellent things. And I like this style of eating… instead of having a huge sit-down meal, we have a long and slow progression of different snacks. It’s good, and I am not arguing at all.
  • People mosey along, and all head out over a bit of time. After they’re all gone there’s honestly not much to clean up, so we do a quick clean up, sit back, and watch a few old B&W Christmas movies
  • Bed around 11:30

 

Wednesday, 25-Dec-13 – Christmas

  • Up slow and easy, as per the usual
  • Following tradition, I spend the morning reading a bit in the sun, as is traditional.
  • As is tradition, relaxed breakfast. I can get used to this habit of waking up with enough time to eat, especially if it involves english muffins and such. But this time, no lunch afterward… because Christmas!
  • Denise’s brother Ronny and his wife Robin come over, and we hang out and chat. Good times are had by all, telling lots of stories and hearing about their elk hunt earlier in the year. Ronnie’s an amazing hunter, and we get to pull up a whole slew of cool pictures from the weekend.
  • On top of being an excellent hunter, Ronnie’s working for a Concrete company, a lot like what my buddy Chirag used to do. We chat a while, and I learn a bit of pretty neat info about how the systems work and how they control component concentrations, along with the systems and how components are added. It’s cool, and I love the chance to learn a bit more about systems.
  • I do duck out for a bit of time so that I can call everyone back East. The family is all getting together for a not-christmas dinner, since my cousin is in town, so I take the chance to have them play “pass the phone” so that I can catch up and say hi.
  • Christmas Dinner Time! Turkey, gravy, basically all the trimmings from Thanksgiving, except with Christmas decorations hung around. It’s solid, and we stuff ourselves rather impressively.
  • During / after the meal there’s lots of chatting and having fun, but then we pull out… DOMINOS! I finally learn the official way to play dominos, and we go through a good number of hands and full games. Poor Ronnie is always getting cut off, and I’m constantly being evil and cutting other people off myself… but it’s all part of the game, and everyone has fun. I even win a round, and come in fifth out of six overall on the first game, and third in the second game.
  • After Dominos we just relax and talk about nothing… though the topic weaves around to travels, and after a bit we get into talking about my trip to New Zealand – so I pull out the netbook and show off my Slideshow from my travels. Woo appreciative audience!
  • Ronnie and Robin head out, and we set down to chill
  • Movies and napping and chill… as is traditional.

 

Nov21

Adventures in Connecticut

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08-Nov-13 through 10-Nov-13

 

Friday, 08-Nov-13

  • Leave work a bit late, drive down to CT
  • Grab some snacks in Waltham, but from there just cut and drive the whole way to Danbury
  • Park, Link up with Big T, and grab some dinner at a solid Mexican place down the street
  • Hit up a bar nearby for reunion drinks.  Yep.  That’s Jack Daniels.
  • Hang out, play some Halo 3 and Lego Lord of the Rings, then watch an episode of Avatar: Legend of Korra
  • Fall asleep like a log

Saturday, 09-Nov-13

  • Up early, head out to Dreads apt. with Amy
  • Grab some food first
  • Good drive… if a bit frigid
    • Hang out at the Salon, actually arrive early for once
    • Hair gets done; it’s horridly painful, as usual… but it looks good!
  • Roll out, and drive in a random direction
    • Hey, “Hazardsville” looks cool.  Let’s go there
    • Hike a bit, read a bit, wander a bit
    • As I’m driving, my hands are freezing and I wish I had driving gloves… cue a Harley Dealership, so I stop in and buy a pair of motorcycle gloves.  They fit perfect, and keep my hands nice and toasty in the cold.
  • Drive around a bit more, and head into Hartford for a walk along the river
    • Try to find a place to park and/or a coffee shop.
    • Nope, cannot find either.  Literally.  No coffee shops in Hartford.
    • No parking spots either it seems…
    • Finally head to the pub that we usually go to when we go to the convention – Steam Brew pub
    • Great Mac and Cheese with Chicken and Bacon and YUM
  • Head out, and meet up with T at his place again
    • Grab some snacks, watch an episode of Avatar, and chill
  • Head out to his friends place for a party
    • Drinks, chill, toasts, the usual small house party
    • They’re fun, and it’s a cool vibe in the house
    • Drink maybe a bit too much… I admit to nothing
  • Head back, watch an episode and play Lord of the Rings, then crash

Sunday, 10-Nov-13

  • Wake up slowly and painfully
  • Grab some advil
  • Grab some Breakfast!
    • First place isn’t actually a diner
    • So we wander
    • Second place?  Totally a diner.  And they have GOOD food
    • And good coffee
    • <drool>
  • Chill for a bit, relaxing and shooting the breeze.  Watch another episode or two, and generally just sit back and enjoy our hangovers
  • Roll out to a state park nearby, called Bear Mountain Reservation
    • Do a bit of walking around… one could even call it hiking
    • Fields, lakes, and abandoned buildings.  Fun times.
    • Shoot the breeze and somehow it’s like we’re back in college, wandering around on a Sunday after a big dorm party
  • Finish up the trail circuit and head back
  • Roll out to my Aunt Tovah’s house up in Roxbury, CT.  It’s about 30min of excellent top-down driving away.
    • On the way I notice a Volvo following me… and an arm waving out the window!  It’s my Aunt Tovah behind me, which is excellent because she stops me from taking a wrong turn, heh.
    • Visit with Tov for a while, hanging out and feeding the goats, seeing the gardens, etc…
    • Relax and chat for a few hours, until it’s late enough that I really should be rolling out
  • Start in on the final leg of the trip
    • Take a break in Terrysville, at a small deli called Sunrise Deli.  For some reason I’d passed a ton of other small places, but this one called to me…For good reason – the guy behind the counter was chill, and we shot the shit for near-on 45min as he made up a sandwich for me.
    • Fun guy, talked about traveling in Europe, Polish food, etc…
    • Why Polish food?  Well – this deli stocked fresh Pierogi.  Of which I purchased more than a few.  Apple Bacon Ranch.  Yes.  Excellent
    • Eat the sandwich in the car as I read a bit more… it’s amazing!
  • Drop the top down again and roll out!
  • Put the top up before I get onto the highway, and hit the long and boring road home
  • At one point the computer systems in the car crap out, and it takes a hard stop-and-reset to bring them back online again.  Otherwise, an uneventful drive.