The Flickr Community (at large) has come up with the idea to take pictures (shut up, I'm not finished) on a particular day to document one's everyday life, and share them with everyone else who's had an ordinary (or not so ordinary) day. This happens on the solstices and equinoxes, not for any particular pagan reason, just to make it regular, not too often, and easy to remember. I chipped in last spring but missed summer and fall, so figured I really ought to try for the winter solstice, which is today. For the morning I have: the children before waking up; the half-finished Christmas tree and the mess of ornament boxes; the almost-finished Playmobil advent calendar; Eleanor writing a package tag for her teacher; a view on the way to the bus stop that I don't usually photograph. I haven't photographed the bus driver wearing reindeer antlers, the staff meeting in which there was much yak about the (ab)use of reports from the help-ticket system for evaluation, and complaints about distribution of cellphones; the much more friendly coffee break where we complained about an absent party who had made some really offensive jokes the day before, and I found out who else had applied on the programming job - two of the other three were present and acknowledged that I likely had the best chance. (Quiver... An email did come out letting us know in official language not to get our knickers in a knot before the new year. Okey dokey.)
Lunch: baked beans, carrot sticks, yogurt with jam, a huge orange, and a few wasabi peanuts from the tub I've been nibbling from all week. (Photographed Vegan Lunch Box-style.) I introduced a colleague to NORAD Tracks Santa, which looks like it's had its site spruced up this year. Talked to Dad on the phone about the programming-job blog entry, talked to Doug who dropped in to give me an early present, walked Bob through downloading Here and Now from the web for Shelley, and conferred with him about what we had left to do and when it would get done. Tonight, after the orchestra party, the wrapping must commence big-time - got to drag out all the kids' presents and sort out what comes from whom. Groceries, too: some of the nuthin' I want to get done over the break is some cooking, preferably the kind that we can put in the fridge and eat leftovers of for days. Over the afternoon, I shepherded around some telephone trouble tickets and read a great number of e-Christmas cards from the various sections of the department, some intranet, some Word, some cutesy animated gifs. Looks like the designers upstairs are busy. About to leave the office, more at the end of the DILO.
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Not too many photo-ops for the rest of the day, just a few city-shots on the way home. After supper I went to the orchestra party, which was very nice indeed (we played through Miss Kirsten MacKay which I hadn't played for a while, sight-read some quartet arrangements of Christmas carols which sounded pretty good for sight-reading, and then ate nibblies and have a few very deep and interesting chats) and might have gotten a few photos if I had batteries. I came home at tennish to find Doug and Bob wrapping like fiends on speed. I joined in, sorting out the kids' presents and figuring out which relative was to give what according to how much money they sent us for them, writing tags and passing paper and tape. We finished the kids' stuff after 12:30, so a picture of the completed mountain wouldn't even be good for the Day In The Life! All the pictures are here.
