Party in da house

Last week, my room-mate and I did a bunch of cleaning to get ready for his birthday party. We bought a lot of food and borrowed a table and chairs and on Saturday morning, I went and picked up the cake and 3 bags of ice. He also found out that his antique car was repaired and wanted to go pick it up to show to the party guests. I was less enthused about it since it would take up premium parking space and might distract the birthday boy from his guests, but he was determined and went along with it.

Another trip for more ice and hamburger buns and some time spent setting up the umbrellas and tables - and we were ready.

As the guests started to arrive, we set up a volleyball net and played a bit. Then a couple of games of bocce got the crowd going. It was a hot day, but we kept everyone hydrated and people took frequent breaks in the house.

When it was time to start grilling, my room-mate fired up the grill and immediately started to get distracted. Fearing disaster, I took over and did the cooking. I things turned out pretty well and I think everyone got enough to eat. My room-mate got a little choked up when we sang happy birthday and I know that it meant a lot that his friends and family were there.

I thought it was pretty cool how easily everyone connected - it turned out that one of my room-mates co-workers had also been a photographer at my co-worker/friend's wedding.

But the event was not without some drama. My room-mate wanted to take some of his friends for a ride in the caddy - at the exact same time that one of his sister decided that she and her family were ready to leave. No one was willing to give ground, so there was some hurt feelings.

Also, his brother didn't show. There was some kind of issue with time off or having to work - the story kept changing. I know my room-mate was pretty hurt by that and hasn't returned his calls.

I did a lot of the cleanup that evening and we finished things up the next day. It was a good party and the success means I think we'll be doing more of this in the future.

In other news... I saw on Facebook this morning that my sister and brother-in-law had some issues with their camper on the trip home. They weren't hurt, but the camper is apparently in bad shape. I'm hoping to touch base with her today and find out what happened.

Finally, I came into work today to find one of my co-worker's "uninterrupted power supplies" was going bad and setting off an alarm. Since he's not going to be back in the office for 3 weeks, I did the most logical thing when faced with locked down computers and passwords and a really annoying alarm - I turned the whole thing off. Which he should have done anyway when leaving the office for three weeks.

About an hour later, he shows up - which was a surprise since we thought he was already gone. Apparently, he's set up his computer to act as an intermediary for his email. And without that, he can't get his email. Why someone would add another, vulnerable layer of complexity to a system that works better without it for the sake of a perceived convenience is beyond me. He bypassed the UPS and got his machines going again before he left.

Insert head-shaking here as I get back to work....