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I spent the week getting ready for the office party that was to take place at my house late Friday afternoon.
There were a few breaks in the preparations.
Barbara and I spent Thursday at my house. I photographed new products for the BCI catalog while Barbara began the re-mastering of the Bat Talk movie we did. After the first version of the movie was highly appreciated by staff and scientists around the world, we knew that there was a market out there.
Barbara has recaptured all the video in a higher resolution format. We are putting it together in a more robust video editing program called Adobe Premiere Pro. Our next step is to re-master the audio. New scripts are needed, because we plan to make the video for the general public, not just scientists.
On Thursday night, Faith and I attended the Hill Country Ride for AIDS first happy hour designed to help get the excitement flowing for the ride on April 24th and 25th. Yep, it's coming around again!
I have been trying to form a team for the ride, so Faith and I went as spies and usurpers to see if we could woo anyone over to our team. Most of the attendees were hard and fast team members, so I don't think the mission was accomplished successfully. But Faith and I have a plan for the upcoming Rider Recruitment party, and we have planted a few seeds. Muwhaaa!
I really want to have a strong team this year, instead of just being one strong fundraiser. The teams really bring a lot more money, and I think their enthusiasm feeds back on each other.
The HCRA website opens next week, and of course, I am gonna start fundraising and rider recruitment as soon as possible. BE WARNED! I will need ya all again this year!
The mixer happened at the San Jose Hotel, and I can't believe how cool this place is. I think many Austinite still think of the place as a crack hotel that it long ago used to be, but nothing could be farther from the truth. This place has been gutted, redesigned, and truly a uniquely gorgeous hotel.
From now on, if anyone is coming to Austin, I am gonna recommend they stay there if it will be a convenient location for them.
 
After the party, Faith and I went over the Austin Music Hall for the annual Armadillo Christmas Bazaar. This gathering of local artisans has been going on since 1970, and it is a Holiday tradition for me to swing by and see what unique gifts can be found.
This year I only found…hehe…gifts for me. Katsu Designs makes these cool wall lights and night lights. All metal and industrial looking. I bought three of them for a really long wall that runs the length of my kitchen. They look pretty cool, and now I don't have to leave a light on in the kitchen at night.
We got home early (Doesn't take long to get through the Bazaar), and I started cleaning the house, which carried over to the next day. . .
I stayed home from work on Friday to prepare for the party.
We planned on having a Sock Hop, which included grilling burgers, hot dogs, fries, shakes and sundaes. This meant grilling in the back yard, and Elaine was going to bring over a portable fireplace for doing smores and marshmallows. That meant the backyard needed to be cleaned up.
Leaves were everywhere, as I haven't been out there for almost a month. The sky was threatening to rain, so I raced to get the backyard ship shape.
I finally gave up on getting it all bagged, so raked all the leaves on to the side of the house…hehe…just a little sweeping under the rug action! The rain finally let lose as I tried to get the front yard in better condition.
Barbara was inside working on the movie, so I did a lot of consulting while I prepped the house for the party. “Bryaaaaaaaaaaannnn…how do I get the titles to come up agaaaaaaaaain?”
And during all this, I had a model flying in from Seattle. Winston's flight arrived at 2pm, a couple hours before the party started at 4pm. I actually had the house as ready as it was gonna be, and made it to the airport a few minutes late because the pouring rain and bad traffic.
Winston was very friendly, and I was happy to hear he'd be comfortable attending the party. We stopped at Super Salads and had a light snack before we headed back to my house for final party prep.
The party got underway around 4:30. Everyone was running late, and there were only about 20 or so people there. Lots of staff couldn't make it- December 12th was a huge day for all kinds of Holiday parties.
Jim did an amazing job on the grill. He worked like a dog to prepare practically all the food for the event. He had so much energy and just kept on going. His girlfriend Julia also came and the end the two of them helped return my kitchen back to its normal appearance. (Thanks you two!)
We did the White Elephant Gift Exchange. The office voted and once again declared that no more goofy gifts to be tossed in. Our new goal was to add gifts to the pile that people would fight to have, not get rid of.
It went very well, and I actually got a book on the history of cycling that I stole from Kristin. Very appropriate, and makes a fine addition to my coffee table.
As I said, the theme for the evening was a sock hop, and the girls got out their best poodle skits and '50s attire.
The guys had it easy. White t-shirt, jeans, and a leather jacket. Pretty much my everyday attire. But there's nothin better than a dogpile with classy ladies in poodle skirts!
We had yummy ice cream treats followed by a game of Twister, provided by Elaine. I helped Julia and Jim in the kitchen. By this time, people had started to head home or to other parties, so we had the perfect number of Twister Participants.
Twister has a variety of rules that confused a few people.
Once the rules were laid out, this vicious group of competitors dove right in.
I even joined in for a couple rounds, but found Faith to be a challenge, what with all her yoga training.
Soon it came down to Faith and Paul (Kristin's boyfriend).
I think from this Photo Finish we can clearly see that Faith took home the Queen of Twister award. Paul's second place standing got him a free visit to chiropractic care.
On Saturday I cleaned up some more from the party. Winston and I did our photoshoot. Winston was real eager to get some awesome shots, and would pump up his muscles between takes.
We would stop and look at the images, see what was working for his poses (he does body building competitions). It was nice to stop and look at the images, and not be so rushed as to the time. I try not to go over two hours, so I don't have to pay as much. But Winston really wanted to experiment and get his flexing proper.
After the shoot, I showed him around Austin, and we ate at Z-Tejas and E-Zs Diner. We watched Some DVD's Saturday night.
Sunday I got up and started working on the journal. Winston went for a photoshoot with Robert San Roman, and I went to the gym to get a little exercise.
Winston heads out tonight at about 5pm, and I guess I will work on the Bio4ms for January.
Hard to believe a whole new year is starting. Guess I also need to make room for 2004 on the ole Fotojournal navigation.
Who knew!?
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