Tuesday,
December 31, 2002
NEW YEAR'S EVE
And the place is clean!
Of course, the question is, will it stay that way after the party?
Oh, who cares. It took me most of the morning to get my office and guest bathroom squared away, then it was time to run out and get the food, decorations and bow ties for the cats (or as Lyndon put it, Le Grand Humiliation. I thought they looked cute, but JJ got out of his in 15 seconds, so apparently my opinion was all by its lonesome) while Lyndon cleaned the kitchen and ran a vacuum around the place.
Much to my relief (mainly because I really needed 15 minutes in which to lie down and get my back to unkink), nobody showed up until 7:30 PM or so, and that was Gloria and her husband John (who were quite gracious about being roped into balloon inflating duty). After that, however, we had a consistent trickle of people until a total of 20 showed up -- a few people begged off due to cranky children, and Derek emailed me and said he was feeling horrible so he wouldn't be coming. Up until that point, Robert's theory was that Derek was either at a rave or at church, and in both places he was picking up honeys. I like Robert -- he lives in an interesting world.
Since 20 warm bodies is an excellent size for this place, and for once I hadn't gone overboard with the party food, a splendid time was had by all as we gathered in various places and talked, laughed, blew up balloons, batted them at each other, and finally saw in the new year by watching the countdown at the big San Antonio party on the Spanish channel. But let the pictures tell their own story, yes?
 |
The party in mid-swing. From left to right it's Jamie, Kerry, Jeff, Jan, Robert, John and Gloria. And we have GOT to get a futon or loveseat for the living room toot sweet. |
 |
My office, aka Kid Central. If the younguns weren't playing with my Barbies or dollhouse, they were on the computer playing games or talking on AIM. |
 |
Jerry, showing off his nifty neato-keen camera that can take 16 serial shots and show them in one picture. It's trés cool. |
 |
Jamie Boughen, one of the driving forces behind A-Kon and Itzacon, and a man you don't want to cross when he's imbibed enough caffeine. I, of course, think he's adorable, and I'm one of his Redheaded Valkyrie Brigade. |
 |
Jamie and his lovely (as well as brand spankin' new) fianceé, Jan, formerly one of his A-Kon angels. Awwwwwwwwww. . . |
 |
A brace of engineers deep in mid bitch session, and one extremely happy cat who's getting team-petted. |
 |
Yes, we're troublemakers. And we're proud of it. |
 |
Paul and his lovely wife Helen, fresh from a classical music concert (hence the black clothing. or was that a fashion statement?) |
 |
Jeff and his equally lovely wife Kerry, along with incipient daughter on board. No, Jeff doesn't normally make her sit at his feet. At least, we don't think so. |