10:06 p.m. | 2004-12-14 Picture This. At work we�ve been trying to plan a department holiday party. We already attended the official work Christmas party. Which was fun and all. But, yeah, not so small. Anyway, NewBoss suggested some ideas and then ran off to a meeting. So, we started planning. Specifically, we were talking about different restaurants for dinner. Ideas were thrown out. Such as it goes. TC (another colleague) started it. (TC:) What about TheNewPlace that replaced TheFormerPlace? (CI:) Oh, yeah. You mean ThisPlace. I haven�t been there yet, so I don�t know. But, wow, I can�t believe TheFormerPlace was closed so quickly. (MC:) (another colleague) I�m not surprised because the food wasn�t good. Well, it�s not because it wasn�t good, it just seemed wrong somehow. Something was off. (TC:) Yeah. They bring you a whole chicken, and then the carcass after you�re done eating? Yeah. I had a problem with that. (NC:) Wait� a whole chicken? They bring a whole chicken to the table? With the head and feet and all that? (TC:) Noooo. (NC:) That�s what I picture when you say a whole chicken. (TC:) No. Like a chicken you get from the store. Sorry, I forgot that you just got back from ThisCountry. No head and feet. (CI:) Isn�t the seating weird too? NewBoss said the booths were like prison cells. (NC:) What? Prison cells? (TC:) No! Not prison cells. Just, you know, it was an industrial building before. (Editor�s note: it was an empty lot before.) The booths� they were like, um, little caves with small doorways and cement walls. It was very, um, hip. (CI:) In a bunker-prison kind of way. Needless to say, we aren�t going there for dinner. However, we did decide upon a date, time and location. Not an easy task considering that we all have several events to attend in the next couple of weeks. Oddly, we�ll attend most of these together. I haven�t been so good about updating lately. I really wanted to get back into the swing of things but I was thrown into a loop when I discovered, a couple of weeks ago, that TheHotel threw away all my personal plants that I had out front. My garden. They threw away my garden. For no rational reason. As a gardener, that�s quite disturbing. As the owner of said garden property, that�s particularly disturbing. Even moreso during this time of one and two year anniversaries of six dead relatives. Quite disturbing. In other news, we stomped TheEnemy�s ass last week in the canned food drive. They produced less than half of what they put out the first week and we stayed about even. As far as charitable concerns go? I�m not sure if competition is good or bad. They caved because we whooped them last week and we stayed up in the numbers. Combined, the total was less than the week before. However, considering the fact that both groups are a small portion of the overall participants, I think we�ve done really well. And, the competition has compelled us to do more rather than less. And, I�m now expecting another NEPHEW. Yup. Baby boy. Boys are in season apparently. NewBoss is also expecting a boy and EldestSister (2 years older than me!) is expecting to welcome her second grandson within the year. More parties this week and next week too. I�ve become a social butterfly. Oh, joy. your thoughts? seed flower