"I'll have a little from Column A and a little from Column B, please."

Short, cryptic, and marginally observational snippets from life in the past week:

I could think that maybe I dreamed one of you, but not all of you; the carnage of my kitchen proves that you were here, really here, and that this house bore witness to a party the likes of which I haven't seen in many years. You were here, and I remember sitting in my favorite spot in the the reading room, far-cornered on the thirdhand couch with a drink in my hand, looking from one face to another and smiling to myself as I clutched my drink. "You said you wanted a birthday party!" was exclaimed to me over and over, as Yet Another Geek came here with proffered alcohol and food.

Occasionally, a phrase uttered in complete seriousness comes back to bite you in the ass. Occasionally, phrases uttered in complete innocence result in anything but.I offer my current example: "Hey, I want a birthday party this year! Why don't we do a big group birthday party for all of the October birthday folks, and maybe send out an invitation to tech staff to see if anyone will want to drive up from Atlanta?"

I was supposed to be asleep. Every now and then, for some reason, even with the best of modern pharmaceuticals, my body just gets determined to stay awake. Therefore, it's well past three in the morning and here I am, glorying in the quietness of my new keyboard in the partially-cleaned computer room.See, I'm plotting. That never bodes well.

The pictures, part two.  Full photoset is available here.

So John shows up with this absolutely adorable technicolor dinosaur hat. I squeal over it. He brings it to the bowling alley. At this point he's only met Kat and Geof, but he's not terrified yet. Good sign. He is squealed over and generally adored (it is the wondergeek way) but the hat…