October 30, 2007: Eleven80 Halloween Party

I was quite exhausted when I pulled myself out of bed this morning. I definitely did not want to be awake. I was very pleased to discover, however, that my Palm Treo 700p – that I updated on Saturday afternoon to the newest firmware revision – still had more than fifty percent of its battery life even though I unplugged it Saturday night or Sunday morning. Before the update the phone was lucky to last through a single twenty-four hour period without the battery giving out.

Pam Playing with Oreo at Eleven80 Halloween Party

There are a number of pictures online (I am not sure for how long) from Eric and Fara’s wedding that Dominica and I went to out on Long Island a couple of weeks ago.

Oreo got to have a half-breakfast this morning. We will see how he does today and if he is feeling better up until lunch then he will get a half-lunch as well. He needs to have enough energy for his Halloween party at Eleven80 tonight. He is going as Harry Potter (that is, “Hairy” Potter) in a custom costume that Dominica’s mom made for him. Dominica is going to go as Hermione and I am dressing up as Hagrid. Hopefully we will be able to get a lot of pictures.

Today was rather busy at the office. I didn’t get a chance to run out for lunch until one thirty. I ran up Wall St. and grabbed a large Boston Clam Chowder soup from the “Hot Soup” truck parked in front of Thomas Pink at 63 Wall across from the Deutsche Bank building (60 Wall.) I ate at my desk as usual. All alone. I had a very busy day, though, and appreciated the chance to just read the news and catch up for a few minutes.

I had to work a little late again today but couldn’t stay very late because of the party tonight. I rushed home skipping a stop at Borders that Dominica is wanting me to make to pick up the “Llama” book on Perl for her.

I got home to Eleven80 in Newark just minutes ahead of Dominica and Oreo. It was a little after six and the big Eleven80 Halloween party starts at six thirty so we had to rush to get the three of us ready and into costume in time. It ended up taking us until almost seven before we were able to get down to the Eleven80 bowling alley.

We were really surprised by the number of people (and dogs) who turned out for the party. The bowling alley was packed. There was a lot of food and drinks supplied too. It was very nice. The Cogswell staff really put a lot of effort into decorating the place. There were servers with hors d’Ĺ“uvre like mini cheeseburgers and mozzarella triangles and tons of cheese platters and cookies and pizza and more.

There was a pumpkin carving contest and a lot of really amazing pumpkins. A human costume contest as well as a dog costume contest. Oreo, of course, won in his adorable Harry “Hairy” Potter costume. He had a really good time at the party playing with people and dogs. There were several dogs there like Latte, Mr. Bill, Riley, Sophie, Luna and Oreo. Luna, Pam and Kevin’s dog, came in second place as the vampire dog (a canampire.) Pam also came in second in the human costume competition.

After the party a few of us stayed in the lounge watching It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown from 1966. That show seemed strangely old and yet seemed totally normal when I was young. Now I can really see the age of it. I probably first saw it around 1982 or 1983 which it was just sixteen years old. The world portrayed in the show was very similar to the one of my youth. But today the show is very dated.

After watching Charlie Brown we went up to Ryan’s apartment and played Chu-Chu Rocket on the Sega Dreamcast for about an hour before everyone headed off to bed. Dominica had decided to forgo the Dreamcast fun and spent the hour cooking BBQ Tofu and Polenta for her International Food Day at work tomorrow. What is incredibly funny is that Dominica bought Chu Chu Rocket for our Dreamcast several years ago and we have never gotten around to playing it! So this was my very first time playing the game but it wasn’t my copy.

I had two cameras with me at the party and at least the pictures from the Nikon D50 turned out great. I will try to get some posted for everyone tomorrow night.

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