I’m gonna try to send out Holiday Cards this year. If you’d like to receive some holiday cheer, send an email with your postal mailing address. Email: tomc@gazpacho.net

Earlier this evening I celebrated the installation of my work project on the production system. It has not been easy. But I take pride in knowing that our customer has a quality product. I found out a coworker is running for governor of Illinois in next week’s elections. He did not gather enough signatures to make it on the official ballot but is a write-in candidate. Funny, huh? Did I mention that my site manager was in a band called the Aging Hippies? I work with some interesting folks.

Tonight my doorbell rang. I opened the door to see two teenage girls standing there. One of them explained that they were on a scavenger hunt. She asked if she could take her picture with me. “This isn’t going on the Internet, is it?”, I asked. “Nah, it’s just for fun.” she replied. Somewhere, a teenager has her picture with a very tired Tom.

I handed out candy to the neighbor kids who came by for Trick or Treat tonight. I didn’t try to “guess the costume” this year. Last year I offended a youngster by asking if he was a Power Ranger. This year I didn’t wear a costume but instead wore my Rob Zombie concert T-shirt. One young boy asked, “Rob Zombie? Somebody has a last name of Zombie?” I responded, “Yep. He’s a pretty good guitar player.” He said, “What’s he play? Oldies?” Haha, wise guy!

Happy Halloween! For my Party Hard Corps friends, Heil Stan!

This past week I got a phone call from a coworker. She told me a friend was associated with a dating group. It was for 30 somethings and was short of men. She promised while there is normally a fee involved, it was free for me. So, I wandered out to meet some women. Come share my cup and listen to my tale. Friends, here there be tygers.

So, I went to the dating group website to register my profile and sign up for the event. The website was poorly designed. There is no way to edit personal information once it has been registered. There was no way for me to sign up for an event with paying money. The event organizer sent me an email to confirm my reservation for the event. But he did not offer to refund my money. Instead he suggested just for fun that I wait until the end of the event to tell him if I want my money back or a gift pass to the next event. Well, duh, since the event was supposed to be free, I wanted my money back. He did not respond to my response. Eventually, he did refund my money. But I went into the event wondering with what kind of scam I was dealing.

The event was at a place called the Chocolate Bar in Lafayette Square in downtown St Louis. The restaurant is nice. I appears to be a great date place. There were a number of couples there. The organizer host greeted me with a sheet of paper. We were not allowed to discuss work, politics or children. Instead the paper had conversation starter questions such as “Famous People You’ve Met” and “Places You’ve Been on Vacation”. All of the ladies were lovely. One of them was brimming with hatred for Texas "because of politics" Buzz, you lose! Another told me that my wearing khakis was a bad choice. Honest yes, but kinda mean. In the end I was only interested in Justine the Teacher and Rebecca the Nurse Practitioner. Now, the way the website works is that I email the organizer my requests for email addresses. If Justine and Rebecca request my email address, then the organizer exchanges them between us. So far, I have heard nothing.

My boss threw a party last night. It was a nice BBQ with lots of tasty dishes. I am blessed to work with some good cooks. I brought some pasta salad I spotted a person or two enjoying. My favorites were the chicken wings and bacon wrapped green beans. Later in the evening I brought in a game called Apples to Apples. We had nine players playing most rounds. After the game all of the married folks left, I sat down with my boss and her gorgeous sister Dara and just chilled out with them. After I noticed a yawn, I decided I overstayed my welcome and left.

That is my social life. I have fun. But sometimes I feel like I have toilet paper stuck to my shoe.

I got back from vacation to find out I got a raise. I feel incredibly blessed. I plan to call a buddy tonight to see if he wants to go out for ice cream to help me celebrate!

I plan to post an entry with pictures on my Gen Con experience later tonight.

We had more bad weather here Saturday. Another one of my fence gates was blown down (weakened by the last storm).

I talked to some coworkers about the detritus of the storm. It seems common to find a grill cover after a storm. If you own a grill cover, you should sew a tag into it with instructions such as “If Found, Please Return to <ADDRESS HERE>”. Just a thought.

My air conditioning is out. I’m gonna ask somebody to look at it tomorrow. Well, it could be worse.. some folks around here don’t have electricity.