It has been more than a month since I posted anything on this site. Mostly because I’ve been very busy and also because the events have either very large (Christmas) or very small. So I felt like I needed to write a great deal or that they didn’t warrant writing anything at all. I figured I’d just skip it all, but I can’t seem to let go of it and it is keeping me from writing anything else. So here is what has been going on.
One month ago today we had the Tel West holiday party. Despite the Christmas tree this was not a “Christmas Party”. I was told this several times. The event is a tremendous amount of work to put together as I found out this year. I was involved in selecting the venue, planning the events and putting together the video. That last bit was by far the biggest drain on my time. Mat, Frank and I had been given the task. You wouldn’t think that a 15 minute video would be so much work, but let me tell you it will suck your life away if you let it. I think just the week before the party I spent 30-40 hours of my own time on the DVD. Not to mention time in work and time the previous weeks. Probably 80-90 hours of my own time all told. That doesn’t include the time Mat and Frank put in on their free time.
The party itself went off pretty well. We watched the movie, had dinner and an auction, followed by dancing that went on well after we left. I was responsible for running the whole darn thing from an A/V perspective. I ran the video, helped with audio, ran awards slides and had slides for each and every item for the auction. Not much of a party for me. Plus I managed to take pictures of the whole thing since we didn’t have a photographer (photos here). Next year, I don’t think I’ll be getting involved. I won’t go into it here, but it wasn’t worth it.
On the way home Amber and I saw a drunk driver. Called 911 and then at their direction continued to follow the driver, giving periodic updates and finally signaling to the deputies which was the car we had called about. We hung around after they pulled over the driver and signed an affidavit about what we had seen. Frankly the driver was lucky to be alive. He had narrowly missed (by inches) Jersey barriers, oncoming cars and cars in neighboring lanes.
A few days later my mom and Dave made it after driving from Seattle. Their flight had been canceled due to snow and they chose to drive. We thought they were crazy, but so glad they did it. It was great having them down here. Christmas was a blast and it really is too much to tell. The kids were a little overwhelmed with the whole thing. We actually put off opening some gifts until after naps and dinner because they had so much.
While they were here Dave and I went and got barbecue. We headed out to Lockhart which has a couple of the top 5 barbecue joints in Texas. Kreuz‘s Market and Smitty’s are both well known. We also hit up Black‘s because, well, they have the most billboards. All were good and different from each other. I’m glad we hit them all because I don’t think I’ll be making the 1 hour drive out there anytime soon. And in truth, the barbecue was darn good.
At the party we also go a Nintendo Wii. When you see this video you’ll know why we had to sell it:
Actually we had planned to sell it all along and put it up on Craigslist before Christmas. We had a few nibbles but not bites. So we opened it on Christmas and had some fun, but were getting kind of bored. The next day we got a call from some folks who couldn’t wait and came over and bought it. It worked out perfect for us. I got to play it enough to get bored with it and then got to sell it for more than it would have cost to buy it at Target. In the end we ended up donating the money to a local food bank.
In other events, I’ve dropped out of the marathon. I’ve been sick too long. After some blood work I’ve been shown not to be faking and will feel better in a few weeks to a few months. In the meantime I’m just trying to get lots of rest. Jillian is getting over having the Rotavirus and Wesley, he’s actually doing pretty well. Amber had a painful cyst and hopefully we’ve gotten our illness quota filled for 2009.
All right. That should do it. Maybe I’ll revisit some of these in more detail later, but probably not.
