Company Party

My employer had its annual Awards Dinner and Casino Night, and since this is my last one before retirement, we decided to attend. Half an hour of drinks to get you numb enough to go through the next hour, which included the Comedy Routine, the Look Back at 2013, the Awards, and the Company Plans for 2014. Last go round the awards part dragged on and on as the top few sales guys got award after award and everyone else sat there; this time was fewer awards and a bit more spread out, which was a lot better, After that it was dinner and conversation, which would have been followed by gambling with monopoly money, except we slipped out around 8:30 and headed home.

Frozen Pipes

An arctic air mass has slid across the US which has made it bitterly cold--meaning 14° here Monday night, and much colder in the Midwest. This morning I woke up at 5:30 to the chirping of my Uninterruptable Power Supply, because our electricity had gone out. So I came downstairs, saw the temperature inside the house was 57°, and got the UPS to stop making noise...whereupon I heard water running under the house. Marvelous. First time I've ever had pipes break. Fortunately there's a main cutoff valve inside the house, so I cranked it to OFF and crawled back under the covers. Electricity came back on at 6am.
Called the plumber at 8am, they promised he'd be there before noon. We had a couple of gallon jugs of water, so we could heat up a cupful for tea and a bowlful for a sponge bath, Not exactly sufficient but better than nothing.
Noon came and went. The plumber did not.
Several more calls. "We'll put you on the schedule", they said. Silly me, I'd thought we already were on the schedule, but I guess just calling and getting a "he'll be there before noon" doesn't count.
More calls. I'm wondering which day he'll show up.
Finally the van arrives at 8pm. Plumber is a nice guy and has obviously had a long day. He crawls under the house and resurfaces with good news: the pipe did not actually break. What happened was, the cold caused the copper to contract enough that it pulled out of the coupling to the back deck faucet. He puts an end-stop on the pipe so we can turn the water back on; he'll have to come back to reconnect the deck faucet but it's not like we're watering plants in January anyway. Disaster averted.

Tamarind

I say tamarind juice in the Asian market and brought some home. Tastes something like quince, something like guava with the grassy taste. I was thinking of Playa Tamarindo, Costa Rica, when I got it; however, it was originally native to tropical Africa.

Ironclads

For my first time out of the house in a week (not counting trips to doctor's offices and the hospital), I went to Ryan's to kick the gaming year off with a bout of Ironclads. Dan, Ryan and I rotated among the three ships in the Ferrol 1865 scenario, with the Confederates winning twice, the Union eking out a win once.

New Years

What an exciting New Years. I had a recurrence starting Sunday night of whatever it was that I had for Thanksgiving week in 2012, although thankfully this time has been rather milder--we caught it earlier and went to Urgent Care first thing Monday morning. Spent the rest of the day (and indeed, most of the week) taking antibiotics and propping up my leg. Tuesday, we cancelled our New Years Eve dinner reservation, pulled out the laptop and watched Hopscotch, a charming Walter Matthau movie from 1980. Wednesday, back to the doc for another shot. Today, to the hospital for an ultrasound on my ankle to see if this is being caused by a blood flow issue--which it is apparently not.
But I read a novel, parts of a couple of rule sets (Monsters and Other Childish Things, Don't Rest Your Head, Godlike) and set up Navajo Wars.

2014

Things to do in 2014 (a partial list):

• Climb Mt Rogers and Buffalo Mountain 
• Take yoga/aikido/tai chi/something class
• Revisit Costa Rica
• Try new foods--things like pummelo, chayote, cherimoya
• Attend LibertyCon, Historicon, SLC ComicCon, GZGECC and others
• Visit Mesa Verde, Shiprock, Monument Valley
• Reconnect with the Charlottesvillains 
• Study investing
• Write 120,000 words of fiction
• Visit Virginia ACW battlefields

Wrapping Up 2013

Notable Events of 2013:

• February: Diana and I went to Costa Rica
• February: Diana and I had our 25th anniversary
• March: Josh and I saw most of the major caves in Virginia together
• March: I turned 50. 
• April: My birthday party, delayed a week since my actual birthday conflicted with Easter
• May: We refinanced the mortgage, which is not something I'm likely to reminisce over but took a lot of attention
• June: Buffy passed away and we attended her funeral in Montreal
• July: Gwen arrived from Australia, huzzah!
• July: tiled the kitchen backsplash, another forgettable item which took much attention at the time
• August: Josh and Gwen moved to Blacksburg
• August: Diana turned 65
• September: I took a vacation to Utah to see national parks, attend SLC ComicCon, and meet people.
• October: Zoe Mutt diagnosed with cancer
• November: my grandmother passed away
• November: spent much time with the Muttling
• December: Diana got the braces off her teeth after 26 months
• December: Zoe took her last sleep, with us beside her
• December: sold the house on Trafalgar Avenue.