Holiday Soiree

Last night was the annual Wilde Bunch potluck gnosh and gift grab.

This was probably the lowest key one I've ever been to since 1983. Energy? What's that? Danny and I did the awful thing of showing up ON TIME (6pm), hauling a sound system and laptop with me for incidental square and c/w dancing.

I knew it was over as soon as I walked in the door. Kent's house is, well...small, but he and Alan had done everything in their power to make it feel big enough for a party. But Peggy, Frank and Peter were already there...none of them what I'd call the life of the party. One can only listen so many times to Peter explaining how he has to eat, since he had that stomach reducing surgery last year. Yes, indeed...it did work. He's 180ish now, compared to the 300 plus, but surely there has to be another conversational gambit. Frank and Peggy are our octagenarian square dancers. Frank is actually quite fun and entertaining, but Peggy has sort of lost it. They hadn't met before last night, since Peggy comes infrequently to dances now at best.

So as soon as I was able, I poured a large glass of wine.

People did start showing up after 6:30, and by 7:30, there was a HUGE amount of food, most of it extremely tasty. I guess there were probably 20 people crammed into Kent's living room and kitchen. I was glad when Kris and Turtle-Bear finally showed...Kris had told me earlier at the Art Tangen A2 dance that she'd be going to a contra-dance last night. Skipped out on that though! Danny, Kris, Turtle-Bear and I all had on identical Santa hats, the only ones that actually looked festive. Seems that only callers and spouses are allowed to wear Santa hats?

The gift exchanged started about 8:00 finally, but was more or less a non-event with virtually no stealing and little excitement about anything. I was working on my third glass of wine by then, so enjoyed it a bit. ;-) Only only really funny gift was a wind up sperm...adorable! The gifts we brought were a set of knee pads (re-gifted), and a Colt 2006 calendar with a box of linen hankerchiefs. Peter got the latter, and didn't 'get it.'

After the 16 people did the gift grab, I sauntered in to the kitchen to gnosh a bit more. Someone had brought devilled eggs, and I hadn't see that! Yay! Popping one in my mouth, I almost lost it. SOMEONE THOUGHT THAT PUTTING CAVIAR ON A DEVILLED EGG IS HIGH CUISINE! AAAAAAAGGGGGH! I swallowed it somehow and grabbed some water and opted not to try anymore food.

Obviously, there was no dancing.

Folks started trickling away right after the gift bit, and we made our getaway about 9:00ish. The intention was to go home, change close and go out to the Ranch.

By 9:45, Danny was asleep sitting up on the couch, and I fell asleep not long after laying down on the other couch. Needless to say...

Wonder what next year will bring us!

Holiday Soiree

Last night was the annual Wilde Bunch potluck gnosh and gift grab.

This was probably the lowest key one I've ever been to since 1983. Energy? What's that? Danny and I did the awful thing of showing up ON TIME (6pm), hauling a sound system and laptop with me for incidental square and c/w dancing.

I knew it was over as soon as I walked in the door. Kent's house is, well...small, but he and Alan had done everything in their power to make it feel big enough for a party. But Peggy, Frank and Peter were already there...none of them what I'd call the life of the party. One can only listen so many times to Peter explaining how he has to eat, since he had that stomach reducing surgery last year. Yes, indeed...it did work. He's 180ish now, compared to the 300 plus, but surely there has to be another conversational gambit. Frank and Peggy are our octagenarian square dancers. Frank is actually quite fun and entertaining, but Peggy has sort of lost it. They hadn't met before last night, since Peggy comes infrequently to dances now at best.

So as soon as I was able, I poured a large glass of wine.

People did start showing up after 6:30, and by 7:30, there was a HUGE amount of food, most of it extremely tasty. I guess there were probably 20 people crammed into Kent's living room and kitchen. I was glad when Kris and Turtle-Bear finally showed...Kris had told me earlier at the Art Tangen A2 dance that she'd be going to a contra-dance last night. Skipped out on that though! Danny, Kris, Turtle-Bear and I all had on identical Santa hats, the only ones that actually looked festive. Seems that only callers and spouses are allowed to wear Santa hats?

The gift exchanged started about 8:00 finally, but was more or less a non-event with virtually no stealing and little excitement about anything. I was working on my third glass of wine by then, so enjoyed it a bit. ;-) Only only really funny gift was a wind up sperm...adorable! The gifts we brought were a set of knee pads (re-gifted), and a Colt 2006 calendar with a box of linen hankerchiefs. Peter got the latter, and didn't 'get it.'

After the 16 people did the gift grab, I sauntered in to the kitchen to gnosh a bit more. Someone had brought devilled eggs, and I hadn't see that! Yay! Popping one in my mouth, I almost lost it. SOMEONE THOUGHT THAT PUTTING CAVIAR ON A DEVILLED EGG IS HIGH CUISINE! AAAAAAAGGGGGH! I swallowed it somehow and grabbed some water and opted not to try anymore food.

Obviously, there was no dancing.

Folks started trickling away right after the gift bit, and we made our getaway about 9:00ish. The intention was to go home, change close and go out to the Ranch.

By 9:45, Danny was asleep sitting up on the couch, and I fell asleep not long after laying down on the other couch. Needless to say...

Wonder what next year will bring us!

Fait accompli

The relief was palpable when we finished our concert set tonight at 5:50.

Actually, we DID enjoy this last one. Although we were back in a church, we all felt loose and relaxed, and gave our best. Even got a standing O after "Ring Out Wild Bells" and again after our encore standard "Everything Possible." George remembered to sing his solo part in "Dreidle a Go Go," and we muddled through the bad French Horn playing by one of our chorines during "In the Bleak Midwinter." All else was really quite faboo. Sidenote: some crawling bit of scum stole most of the money from the donations basket during refreshment intermission. Sigh. All in all, it was both a financially successful concert term and an artistic high, considering we're only 16 singers.

In spite of the highs of being in a very good chorus, I'm relieved that I'm not singing the Spring term. Having a booking in Denver the same weekend the May concerts are isn't very compatible. I did get a few "oh no sorry to hear thats" when the word filtered around that I wouldn't be back.

Danny had a tasty dinner almost ready when I pulled in, and now he's downstairs in Mike's room catching up on Replay TV shows, with the Bear. (We have a couple of hundred bears throughout the house, but this is a special TV watching bear that fits in the crook of his arm). He spent a good bit of the day taping and mudding the drywall, so we only have about four or five more hours left on that project before we tackle the SW side of the fireplace and the west wall. My contribution was moving the boxes and furniture out of the way, since I didn't have much energy for anything else. I considered applying tonight the weatherproofing paint on the areas that had seen water damage, but that can wait until maybe Tuesday night.

The bongo/bells player, a beautiful woman about 30, invited us all to her house for a holiday thank you...I think it's going to be Dec 28...very nice of her to offer!

Fait accompli

The relief was palpable when we finished our concert set tonight at 5:50.

Actually, we DID enjoy this last one. Although we were back in a church, we all felt loose and relaxed, and gave our best. Even got a standing O after "Ring Out Wild Bells" and again after our encore standard "Everything Possible." George remembered to sing his solo part in "Dreidle a Go Go," and we muddled through the bad French Horn playing by one of our chorines during "In the Bleak Midwinter." All else was really quite faboo. Sidenote: some crawling bit of scum stole most of the money from the donations basket during refreshment intermission. Sigh. All in all, it was both a financially successful concert term and an artistic high, considering we're only 16 singers.

In spite of the highs of being in a very good chorus, I'm relieved that I'm not singing the Spring term. Having a booking in Denver the same weekend the May concerts are isn't very compatible. I did get a few "oh no sorry to hear thats" when the word filtered around that I wouldn't be back.

Danny had a tasty dinner almost ready when I pulled in, and now he's downstairs in Mike's room catching up on Replay TV shows, with the Bear. (We have a couple of hundred bears throughout the house, but this is a special TV watching bear that fits in the crook of his arm). He spent a good bit of the day taping and mudding the drywall, so we only have about four or five more hours left on that project before we tackle the SW side of the fireplace and the west wall. My contribution was moving the boxes and furniture out of the way, since I didn't have much energy for anything else. I considered applying tonight the weatherproofing paint on the areas that had seen water damage, but that can wait until maybe Tuesday night.

The bongo/bells player, a beautiful woman about 30, invited us all to her house for a holiday thank you...I think it's going to be Dec 28...very nice of her to offer!