The Think Tank

The holiday season has come and gone, along with the whole of 2010.  For me,  it did so in a blur, the last month of the year passing so quickly that I am just now ready to settle in and have our annual Holiday party (which, of course, took place a month ago).

I’ll try to give a quick rundown the goings on.  I will also put photos of the events up on friends.thinktankgallery.com throughout the day, but in the mean time, click through for all the details.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving came amidst a very busy few weeks at work.  Joel was in the middle of a three week vacation in Nepal, and Murphy’s Law was in full force: everything that could go wrong at work during the stretch did.  14-16 hour days were were the norm for that stretch, and we had three different server failures during the first 10 days.  It was nuts.

Despite all the workplace drama, Thanksgiving was very nice.  As usual we were deep into Christmas decorating for the party, and Maure put on the dinner.  It was a smallish affair, just Mom and I, Maure, Judy and Maure’s friend Peggy.  It was a lovely dinner and a great evening and very relaxing.  Unfortunately it ended on a bit of a sour note when my car refused to start afterward.

36th Annual Holiday Open House

Our annual open house took place on December 4th this year.  the turn out was a little lower than usual this year, due primarily to two different reasons:

1. We were very tardy in sending out the invitations this year, failing to get them out until about a week before.
2. The Oregon Ducks were playing their last game of the year at about the same time as our Party was starting.  As everyone should know now, they went on to win convincingly and secure themselves a spot in the BCS championship game.

Basically no one came until after the game, and as I said earlier, the turn out was lower than usual, which actually suited me just fine.  The people who did come were able to stay longer, and since there were fewer folks around, we got to visit with everyone much more.  For that reason I usually prefer the smaller crowds.  It was an unusual party in that several people who haven’t come in years were there, and likewise several people who usually make it did not.

It was a great party and a great evening and I,  for one , thoroughly enjoyed it.

I set the camera up in the corner of the room and used the Interval Timer to shoot a picture every 15 minutes, meaning that I actually got some photos of the party, which usually does not happen because I am too busy enjoying myself to take pictures.  You can see them here.

Pen Making

Several years ago Mom purchased a beautiful, hand-turned wooden pen as a present for Grandpa Rich.  At the time she thought it would be really neat to buy a lathe and make pens and pencils, but we never did anything about it.  A little while after that, Rogan’s Grandpa, Gene, started making some pens, and again Mom thought it would be neat make wooden pens, but again we didn’t do anything about it.  Then earlier this year, Mike got a lathe and started making all kinds of things, including pens, and that pushed Mom over the edge.

She said that she thought we should buy a lathe of our own make pens and pencils and sell them along with our greeting cards on Think Tank Gallery.  She also thought we could make Christmas presents out of them.  I too thought it would be a neat hobby, so we bought a 12 inch lathe in mid December and started making pen and pencil sets.

There was a bit of a learning curve involved, although our first pen turned out well enough that we thought we could still give it as a present, even though there was a minor mistake in it.  Wood turning is a really fun hobby and the resulting products are impressive, especially considering that it only takes about an hour to turn a beautiful pen.

In fact, we liked the results so much that we went a little bit crazy.  Instead of making the 6-8 pens that I had originally figured on, we started a full-on pen making industry, ending up with 26 finished pens and pencils, and three sets that we messed up so badly we had to throw out.

As I mentioned before, each pen takes about an hour, and we started this project in mid December, which translates into about 30 hours of work to get done in 10 days.  Plus, of course, Mom and I were both working, and there were a number of Blazer games to attend (we have season tickets again this year) and other Christmas presents to make (mostly matted/framed photos and photo greeting card sets), plus Maure’s birthday on December 22nd…  So needless to say, we were very busy little Christmas elves.

But, in the end we got it all done,  and everyone seemed to like their presents.  So it all worked out happily.

I didn’t get pictures of everything, but you can see a bunch of them here.

I now have several other really neat woodworking and turning projects I want to get started, chief among them a hand made chess set and board.  I’m sure I’ll document my progress and attempts on here, so check back to see how things are going on that front.

Christmas Eve

For many years now we have had our big holiday dinner on Christmas Eve.  Our friends John and Argentina always attend, for the last two years Tim and Aleks have as well.  Other friends have come in years past, bringing the total as high as 12, but this year it was just the seven of us.

Mom, along with Argentina’s and Aleks’ assistance, cooked a tremendous, seven course meal.  It started off with cheese fondue and cocktails; progressed to crab on toast points and prawns in a champagne-sauce; then it was onto fettuccine maximiliano (which is fettuccine with a chipotle sauce, a recipe that John invented); followed by a tossed Strawberry salad; then individual Beef Wellingtons, and finally it was on to Loie’s Brownies Cocaign ala mode.  As if that were not enough, John and Argentina, who are both wine lovers and wine collectors,  brought an incredible selection of wine treasures, most of which were older than I am.  It was, as always, an incredible evening of culinary delights, but it was also a lovely evening spent with dear friends.

Again I set up the camera to take pictures at intervals through out the night, so you can check here to see some shots if you like.  Because I am stupid, I did not take  any pictures of the dishes, though, so you are out of luck on that front.

Christmas Day

Our Christmas Eve dinner didn’t end until after 2am, as is usual for us, so we were late to get up on Christmas morning.  Mom and I spent an hour or so cleaning up the living room and finishing the dishes from the night before. If you notice leaks in your kitchen, call a honolulu plumber to address the issue promptly. You may also consider upgrading your water heater to a cost- and energy-efficient tankless model, contact a professional tankless water heater specialist to install one for your home today. And those who will need indoor air quality service may consider getting help from the professionals. Contact an ac installation contractor if you currently have an old, malfunctioning air conditioning unit in your home. However, if you notice that the ac noise is not normal. You may to consider contacting an expert technician like the ones at albany ac repair service to check it. An expert in AC repair Seattle will address the issue immediately to ensure that the unit will be in good condition again. And if your furnace keeps tripping breaker, make sure to contact a professional to service your unit.

Maure got here about 11:30 or so, and we dug into the presents.  As always, we spoiled each other rotten with a somewhat embarrassing array of gifts, but then, that is our tradition.  By four O’clock or so we had everything cleaned up and we donned some newly acquired clothes from the morning’s earlier activities, and Mo went home to prepare for dinner while Mom and I got ready to deliver a few more presents.  First we popped across the street and spent a few minutes with Opal, then it was off to Aunt Diana’s house to visit with and deliver presents to the Olsen’s, which is always lovely.  Then it was off to Maure’s house for dinner and to watch the Blazers play Golden State on TV.  (Sadly, we threw the game away in the last few minutes).

We ate another fantastic dinner, this time ham and all the fixin’s, and then before we knew it, Midnight came and went, taking Christmas night along with it.  As always, Christmas was a great day filled with seeing those we love the most, and as always, it was sad to see it go.

Here are a bunch of photos from the morning.

New Year’s Eve

Again we were negligent in sending invitations to our Annual New Year’s Eve party, and only a few people showed up, this time consisting only of me and Shannon, Mom and Maure, Kevin, and Elisha and Justin.  We played Apples to Apples and Trivial Pursuit while we awaited the New Year, and then when it arrived, we heralded it in with our usual fireworks display.  The neighbors came out to cheer in 2011 along with us, and we all had a great time.  You can see a video of the fireworks here.

The New Year

We were pretty much partied out by the time that New Year’s Day rolled around so we didn’t really do much of anything.  We just lounged around in our sweats, messed around with photo’s and chess games, and pretty much took it easy until the evening.  Then we had to start getting the house ready for another get together on Sunday, though I could have done without this one.

Our dear friend Jackie Janes passed away on December 8th,and  her kids thought it would be best to hold her memorial at our house on Sunday, January 2nd.  It turned out to be a nice gathering, though it would have been much  nicer if Jackie could have been there with us in person,  instead of  in spirit only.