Octogenarian Birthday Extravaganza

 

Yesterday was "Go Live" Day for our new system at work, but I waited until today to try to do anything when we had an open lab. I was feeling all cocky that I had gone to all the trainings and tried all the situations in the test environment, while a colleague had not gone to any trainings and had no idea what to do. But pride goeth before a fall, and somehow my permissions were screwed up so that I couldn't do anything in the new system. I spent the whole time helping my clueless colleague, then I went for a walk in Allen Centennial Gardens over lunch with Hardingfele. First we gazed at the pond full of lilies.

Then we admired some green zinnias.

And we found one last prickly pear in bloom.

After lunch I went to help my clueless colleague again. I thought we were going to do an expense report, but first she wanted to order some paper. So simple!... except when we did a search for "paper," we got no results. We even tried the product number, and still it said no results. So as of yet, neither of us has done anything successfully in the new system.

I left work an hour and a half early, since I couldn't do anything anyway, and Travalon picked me up. We went to a birthday party for a Shamrock Club member. It was a big party for an age ending in zero, and the birthday boy wore an amazing shirt that said "Oldometer" and then showed the number flipping from 79 to 80. First a local Irish band played, the one we always see at Alt Brew, and then there was a pig roast.

People brought all sorts of sides and salads and desserts, plus there was birthday cake. We mostly hung out with other Shamrock Club people there, although I did talk to a woman who was a childhood friend of the birthday boy. I said she could join the Shamrock Club, and she did admit that both her maiden and her married name were very Irish. We also talked to the guy from New Zealand, who is always pleasant company. After dinner a funk band played, and most of the club members left, but Travalon and I really liked the music, so we stayed until the band took a break. When we got home, I saw that Lazarus is almost done blooming - each of those puffballs full of flowers now only has one or two blossoms left. They still smell really wonderful. I found my new shirt had arrived. It's perfect for Horicon Marsh:

I said I owed this blog two photos, so I'm actually going to post three, because two are the front and the back of the commemorative glass I got at the showing of Purple Rain.

And this is the little conductor hippo we got at the Illinois Railway Museum. Travalon has dubbed him Casey Jones, after a train conductor so famous that there is even a Grateful Dead song about him.

Isn't he adorable? I'd like to ride his train to a place where I can do my work because the system hasn't decided to lock me out. We shall see what tomorrow brings...

Famous Hat