It was a three-party Saturday like no other. Red Dragon brought in the Chinese New Year with their usual Lion Dance and Demo at McKinley Mall. I led the parade as crowd control as usual, dressed in my wedding outfit. The lion players seemed better trained than most years. I also go to meet a couple of Kimura’s Kendo students who did a demo as well.
In the evening, I went to a business networking theme party, “Piesta”, celebrating “National Pie Day” (like Chinese New Year’s start, a week late). I broguht some of Merry’s “Egg Pie” (which I call “Breakfast Pie”), then ambled through a blizzard to meet up with Merry at a party thrown by one of the vets from work.
It was a “[[Burns supper]]”, in honor of a longtime dead Scottish poet, [[Robert Burns]], who wrote [[Auld Lang Syne]]. I tried some eggs wrapped in sausage and “[[bubble and squeak]]”, which I found I prefer to [[latke]]. I did not, however, partake (as my wife did) of the [[haggis]], which was paraded to it’s place of honor with the aid of bagpipe music (recorded since the bagpiper didn’t show, seriously) and toasted in due form. There was singing (I even got Merry to sing) and toasting and general debauchery with a plethora of Scotch beverage choices. I read a Burns poem, as did others, but mostly it was a young lass talking science fiction with Mer and I, seeing who could out-geek the others.
The blizzard cleared up, which was thankful, since the visibility on the way there was nearly zero. I even had to use my brush to get out of my car and clear off road signs, and drive under 20 mph just to see (and not spin off) the road. But at least we know it’s winter now!