Wot, Another Party?

Plus, working late - although not something I prefer to make a habit of - is never as bad as it seems at other times like it will be.

All was basically back to normal on Friday, happily enough. We even played a really large Quake game after work. Then I went to Borrone and finished reading Iain M. Banks' The Player of Games, which was a fun book although frustrating (necessarily so) in that the cool game it revolves around isn't described in much detail. It's a good first book to read if you want to read Banks' Culture novels, and is an interesting counterpoint to Use of Weapons.

A couple of guys on the floor at work were playing Magic last night while we were playing Quake, which made me realize that I hadn't played Magic in a dog's age, and remember that it's actually a fun little game. So today I was playing around with my Magic cards while watching the latest Sports Night re-runs.

Like I don't have enough to do!

Today Michael Walsh and his roommate Paula threw a housewarming party. Michael's been out in California since Jen Wade's birthday party last April, and Paula is a friend of his from North Carolina who moved out here in December, and they decided to room together.

Apparently Paula and Leslie - my cow-orker Ray's wife - really did hit it off last week, as Michael sent me last-minute mail yesterday to contact Ray to invite them to the party. So I did that.

In my ongoing quest to learn how to be fashionably late to parties, I lazily watched those Sports Night episodes and paid some bills, then stopped by the Post Office (it was closed) before heading off to the party. I guess I got there between 3:30 and 3:45, and the only folks who had yet arrived were Ray and his family. So apparently that worked out just fine!

Other folks trickled in over the next hour, including journallersTrish, Susan, Lucy, Lunesse and Monique, along with Susan and Luny's SOs. Hmm, I guess Ray was the only one who didn't have a journaller in his brood! (I think Ray is slightly agog at all us journallers who know each other, and predictably he hasn't quite grasped the degree to which we really know each other. For instance, I know Lucy and Trish well, I've exchanged some amount of e-mail with Monique but this is the second time we've actually met, and I don't really know Luny or Susan well. Apparently he's become more interested in reading other journals [besides mine, I think], though.)

Michael and Paula have a very nice third floor 2-bedroom place, although the small kitchen frustrates them. They also have a very friendly medium-sized black dog named Morgan, who was having the time of his life, except for perhaps not begging successfully enough for food. We all had a great time petting or playing with Morgan.

Michael made some excellent chili for the party, which was quite spicy (and which I can still taste, though you didn't really need to know that). There was also some very good fruit salad which Monique gushed over.

A number of people filed out relatively early, although all of them had considerable drives ahead of them. (I think only Ray and I live within 20 miles of Michael and Paula). Trish and I stuck around until about 9:30, and Trish was still there when I left. It was nice to get to talk to Paula more, though, having only talked to her for a little while at my party last weekend. She seems very pleasant, although perhaps over-busy with her new job just at the moment. I think she was rather bemused as Michael, Trish and I all devolved about 10-to-20 years into semi-inspired silliness towards the end.

A good party. I think the hosts are exhausted.

I seem to write more and more about other on-line journallers as well as about people who know about my journal and/or read it with some regularity. Although I don't ponder it too deeply, I do always wonder what I should write. Should I mention this? How should I describe that? Will someone be offended if I don't say something about them (beyond just mentioning their name)? How much 'air time' should I give to each person?

Well, no one's complained yet, and I don't feel I've yet horribly embarrassed myself, so I must be doing something right.