Let's try this again from the top.
Second try: I tried to post from Laurelinde's place but her wireless access point bounced me halfway through the process, so it never made it through.
Happy New Year and welcome to the year 2008 of the common era!
Laurelinde and Lyssa, both off yesterday, spent much of the day getting ready for the shindig at Laurelinde's place last night while I was at work. Unfortunately, I didn't get back to the apartment until nearly 1900 EST5EDT due to a last minute project that I had to see through to the end. I actually left the office around 1800 EST5EDT but had to stop off at Whole Paycheque to pick up a couple of bottles of raspberry lambic and then go back to the apartment to pick up a couple of things, like the Aerobed so that Lyssa and I could crash over there in relative comfort, the contents of the gift basket from my boss, and a couple of DVDs that we wound up not watching. After making sure everything was taken care of, I set out across the Beltway for Maryland.
Strangely enough, I made it in about a half hour's time, not because I was travelling at speed but because the Beltway was curiously empty of travellers. Maybe everyone left for their respective parties early, or maybe I hit one of those strange moments in Time in which everything moves together with the precision of a Swiss clockwork. Maybe I was just one of the schmucks of the very last group of people to leave work yesterday, I don't know. What I do know is that I made it without little trouble. Lyssa and Laurelinde were hard at work in the kitchen on Alton Brown's city ham recipe, and everyone else was lounging around the house chatting.
Dinner, namely the aforementioned ham and a number of boxes of Mrs. T's Pierogies (which, I maintain, can't hold a candle to homemade pierogi) was ready around 2100 EST5EDT or therabouts. Everything had gone off without a hitch, and everyone was pleased with how dinner turned out. It was around this time that N- and I cracked open our libations of choice (the ladies had been too kind to me and bought a flask of Goldschlager for me, which was shared along with the bottle of Captain Morgan's Private Stock, a gift earlier in the day from a friend at work).
The New Year was rung in on the porch of the house with N- firing the cork from a bottle of bubbly in the general direction of out and away from everyone, followed by a couple of people retiring for the evening. N- and I stayed up until 0300 or so this morning talking about life in general and history, but eventually I stumbled upstairs to crash for the night. Once again I slept until noon or therabouts (have to watch that, what with work and all) and was greeted by the midday sun, a pot of coffee, leftover pierogi from last night, and (scrambled) eggs Benedict, courtesy of Laurelinde. Lyssa and I eventually headed out around 1500 EST5EDT today - she's asleep in the other room right now while I tidy up a bit around the apartment and re-write this entry (more coherently than last time, I hasten to add).