Missives from the 6th Floor

Dawnise busted her ass over the past month making the living areas of the house look pretty well "moved in" - my contribution to said process was writing the check to have the pool table reassembled, getting the stereo/tv setup, and hanging pictures. Oh, and shuttling stuff we didn't need in the house down to the basement.

We had our "normal" assortment of cheeses (parties to me are basically an excuse to buy a ton of cheese), bread, crackers, mulled wine (always a hit) and Dawnise-made "spicy-spaghetti" and a tomato veggie soup. Plenty of folks brought wine, and Edmond brought <horrible-mangling-of-a-foreign-word>mittitae&/lt;horrible-mangling-of-a-foreign-word>, which would have been awesome, had we any propane in the BBQ. (Since we didn't, Dawnise and I were forced to put it in the fridge and have some the following night. We're all broken up, really. How sad for all of you that you didn't get any.)

The cookie exchange participation was excellent (Dawnise says the most folks participating ever), and the gift exchange was highly amusing, with gifts ranging from a re-gifted portable television to an Archie McPhee's devil-duck shower cap.

A week or so ago Dawnise dropped fliers in our neighbors mailboxes inviting all of them, and much to our pleasant surprise. a handful made it. Hopefully we'll have a chance to spend a bit more time getting to know them in a smaller setting.

The last folks left just before 11, and we did the first round of cleanup, started the dishwasher and hit the sack a bit after midnight - sleeping soundly through 'till after 10 the next morning.

The house has been warmed - and amazingly no one spilled red wine on the beige carpets.

w00t! (Word of the Year Edition).