Enemy Free Evening

My streak of free dinners continued last night with the annual office Christmas Party.  Before we got to that point though I had to drive a stake through the heart of my Excel adventure.  It’s interesting to blast through a series like this and then go back and see all the small mistakes I made even though I was looking directly at them. 

The Bane of This Week's Existence

I was just about done when one of my subordinates came in with a suggested change. I had previously announced we had officially passed the “Good Idea Cutoff Point” but his suggestion was too good to pass up. I thanked him with a dirty look and dove back into making the changes.

Meanwhile my wife finally ventured out into the cold to execute some Christmas shopping.  She called me via a very bad cell phone connection to get my advice.  I semi-curtly told her the whole point of her doing the shopping was that I didn’t get to participate.  She just cannot understand how anyone wouldn’t love to shop; 31 years and counting.

My Wife and I Last Night at Home

I always look forward to the office Christmas party because I work with some really special people.  Our normal haunt was unavailable this year so we ended up at an upscale Italian restaurant, Via.  The food was excellent and we had our own room but the atmosphere was a little too subdued to be classified as festive; it was actually difficult to see from one side of the room to the other due to the low lighting.

Low Lighting but Lots of Fun

Via is located in an old factory right across the street from our favorite First Friday haunt, Brew City which was executing some serious siren calls throughout the night.  One of the best aspects of the annual Christmas parties was the loud effusive spirit expelled in abundance.  This location was so quiet and restrained that I think everybody was a little reticent to be the one to break the calm.  I did my level best aided by my old friend, demon alcohol. 

My Wife Ready for Christmas Party

While a little more quiet this year, it was still a lot of fun hanging out with these fine people.  My excellent boss’ wife and my wife immediately got together and made a series of plans, impacted by my wife's annual January-March sabbatical to the tropics.  They are fun to watch together because they have similar spirit and crosses (their husbands) to bear.

The Two Wives Making Plans

Earlier in the day I also finished my latest Christopher Nuttall novel, No Worse Enemy.  I dove into this book after devouring his first effort about a distant future galaxy spanning human empire reaching the point of dissolution and the abandoned Terran Marine Corps unit charged with keeping civilization alive. 

This book was a bit of a let down after the excitement of the first.  He takes the same characters a few months after the climatic events of the first book and presents them with a new challenge of a rogue force trying to take over the sector.  The strength of the first book was Nuttall’s uncanny ability to depict the close combat scenes and scenarios.  He hasn’t abandoned that in his second book but he spends way too much time following the plight of a kidnapped girl forced to work for the bad guys.

 

I know there’s a trend in Science Fiction to broaden the appeal to more female readers but he had already done that with a kick ass female platoon leader in the marines.  The read ended up similar to teaching my kids how to drive, lots of stops and goes.  Every time he returned to the marines we were rocking along then back to the kidnapped girl and a screeching halt.  He’s written a whole series of these books and I’ll eventually come back but not immediately.  Might have been too much of a good thing too fast (a semi-constant theme in my life); at least I know it’s waiting for me out there.

You see, daughter of mine, no secrets revealed!