I arrived at work this morning to find a voice mail message from Susanne saying, “John, I hope you don’t mind, but you’re going to Los Angeles for three weeks a week from Monday.” Actually, I’m going to Irvine, just outside L.A. to work with the Access360 writer, Kim, on rebranding the pubs for the November 15th release. We’re officially only planning two weeks, until 11/8, but more than likely, it will end up being 3 weeks, until the 15th, as things inevitably slip, and the 15th is the G.A. date.
One of the first things I did was to check out the gay C&W bars in the area to see if there are any line-dancing and two-stepping nights. 🙂 My initial scan found two clubs, in L.A., and between the two of them, I can dance Tues, Thurs, and Friday nights! Yippee! It remains to see if 1) I get a car while I’m there (L.A. is about 40 miles from Irvine), and 2) if the traffic isn’t so horrific as to make it not worthwhile.
I also tried to check for a “Starwood” hotel in the area, but the site was down for maintenance. I did a cursory check for American Airlines flights, and that should work out. Final plans will be made next Tuesday, the 22nd.
Today, I also did a comparison of the new health plans, one of which we have to decide on soon, while open enrollment is on. I think I’m going with the new IBM PPO. Will make a final decision on Monday about it.
I left work at around 1:30 today. Everything was basically all finished up. Mathis took a half day. Susanne took a vacation day. Jim was out.
Games night was a ton of fun. The poll game was a hoot, especially when Joel asked everyone’s name, and we all put name tags on and then kept deliberately and emphatically saying everyone’s name at the end of each sentence. I enjoyed Joel’s sense of humor, and had fun being a “mentor” to him in the Apples to Apples game.
The most fun of the evening was playing Catch Phrase, which is no surprise. I truly love that game. Bob was a hoot, usually struggling for the right words, and banging the hell out of the device before he passed it on. Brian, the game’s owner, finally asked him to take it easy on it. Also amusing, was the way Ken always looked at Keith (his partner) while he was giving his clues, and Joel, meekly saying, “Ken, I’m on your team, too.” It’s funny to see how people have certain “quirks” playing that game.
Robert called at about 9:45, and was stuck in traffic on the way to my house. He had spent the evening moving a bunch of his stuff from Charlie’s place to his new apartment. He called around 10, and was turning onto Kent. I went home and met him.
We went to Lilly’s and ordered a 14″ Pepperoni and Mushroom pizza. It was yummy. I had root beer and Robert had a coke. We took home two pieces for lunch tomorrow.