Wednesday

The IPTV project at work goes well. Using a special software load on the Moxi box, and working closely with name of company redacted, we are apparently the first people to make box that can names of features redacted in actual people's actual homes, not just in a lab.

Due to the 4 day holiday, our CEO sent out a broadcast email inviting everyone who absolutely didn't need to stay `til five to take off a couple of hours early. Didn't need to ask me twice.

I stopped at my grape juice pusher (the The Vineyard Wine Shop) to pick something up for the next day's feast. He made a couple of suggestions, all of which were discovered the next day to be most excellent. I like to tell people I've outsourced my wine snobbery.

The piano lesson was, as I had about expected, pretty brutal. I had missed the previous week due to work overload that previous Wednesday, and also had missed the salon the weekend before that. I was given a new scale to work on, and then we worked the chromatic scale in the current piece.

Then I met up with sierra_faye1 for an evening out. We drove around a bit, and then hit the Whole Foods Market in Roosevelt for dinner. (I bumped into a couple of the ladies who come to k-niting in parallel with my weekly knuth group.) Then a nice soak and some social time.

Thursday

After a nice slow awakening, I got ready, and then whipped up a batch of Atwood secret holiday punch. I repeated last year's substitution, swapping in unsweetened lemon-lime seltzer. It makes it a lot less sweet, and a lot more drinkable. I also threw in an actual lime, cubed up, which also improved it. About a kilo of crushed dry ice, stirred semi-constantly, made it nice and slushy. It was a hit.

In the early afternoon, I picked up tygereclipse and her lovely boyfriend, and we all headed down to the home of elfs and omahas for the public feast. We all had a great time, and the feast was utterly delicious.

Friday

I woke up at five-dark-oclock, and within half an hour I was heading back down to omahas, to spend the morning playing the driver for her Black Friday shopping. We hit Big Lots, Toys R Us, Circuit City, Home Depot, IKEA, and Target.

I was really starting to fade out by the end, but fortunately, we were at the end of the list, and I conked out for a much needed nap.

That evening, omahas and I hooked up again with tygereclipse and her boy. First, for a nice soak (boy, I love my Tubs membership), and then we introduced them to Dilettante Chocolate.

Saturday

I spent much of the day cleaning my apt, etc, et al.

The evening, I went down to Kent, j5nn5r had invited me to join him and his friends for an after-Thanksgiving feast. It was again yummy, and the socializing was nice. I got to meet his dad. Several card games were played, including "Who's Got the Brain", "Set", and multi-Poker.

I hit the local grocery story by my apt on the way home, and bought two turkeys and pans at clearance prices. The plan is to completely render them into poultry stock, to be frozen, and then used as needed.