I thought I was going to have to spend a lot of time at work this weekend in order to get things straightened out before I leave for China, but I managed to get most of it done in a relatively small amount of time. That's a good thing, because I had a lot of other things going on this weekend.

Friday I went to Katie, Kate, and Beth's to watch the really horrible movie From Justin to Kelly. It's sort of a thing with these guys to find a really bad movie and watch it just for fun. This movie was particularly bad. It featured the two people who'd won on the first season of American Idol. If you have the opportunity to watch it while you have rum-soaked brownies and five very attractive, fun women around...do it, otherwise you really should skip it.

Saturday I worked in the late morning and afternoon, until I went home to change for the work holiday party. I drove downtown to pick up comics, then I picked up Cathy (whom a number of us practically had to strongarm into coming to the party because she's not very up for being social since her boyfriend was sent back to South Africa for a while. It's very sad and annoying for everyone at work). Then the two of us made our way through town to Katie, Kate, and Beth's again to pick up Katie. After that we had a good time getting partially lost in Seattle while Katie tried to get us to I-90 because I'd suggested we take that instead of 520 because there had been an accident on 520 (which I'd seen on the other side of the road when I came into Seattle). Eventually we made it where we needed to be and drove out to Kirkland.

Once there, we hopped on the boat the company had rented and took a cruise around Lake Washington. It was a great party (and Shana should be very, very pleased with how it turned out. Good work!), dinner was excellent, the music was good, but not too loud or intrusive, the White Elephant gifts were fun (even pretty good in some cases), and the door prizes were great. It's great to work somewhere at which pretty much everyone gets along and respects each other, because it makes the holiday party an actual joy to attend.

After the party a bunch of us went to a nearby danceclub/bar/meat market. It was very unfun and everyone eventually filtered out...probably wishing we hadn't gone there.

Oh, my White Elephant gift was the boardgame Tri-Bond. It's the game where you are given a list of three things and you have to figure out how they're related. I chuckled to myself when I opened it because I remembered that Patch Products, the company that makes it, is located in Beloit, which is about 20 miles(?) from my home town.

Sunday I went to work and did all sorts of stuff, then left for Mike's birthday party/dinner. They had a Greek theme to the food and it was excellent. He and Sharon did a great job getting it together and we all had a good time. We even met some friends of theirs that I'd never heard of before. Who knew they knew anyone else in Seattle?

After dinner I went to the Ballard Firehouse to see Katie's sister's band, The Consequences. They were very good and had a couple of very catchy songs that I'd like to hear again.

I took a bunch of pictures at dinner and at the concert tonight, if any of them look good enough, I'll post something here (with Seth's help, of course).

I'll try to post before I leave, and depending on what sort of connection I have in China, I'll try to post something from there.