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Fifteen people attended Operation Icicle which is few compared to most gatherings I have.  There were two waves of departure which left a core of six from 1am onward.  We talked for a few hours and before one friend left we chatted:
Me: Did you enjoy yourself?
Him: I suppose.  It wasn’t your best gathering.
Me: Noted.
Him: Better luck next time.
The wood was a little damp, the night rather cold, and the ground a little wet.  These added up to less than the evening I wanted.  While cleaning up, one of the guests fell almost directly on my surgical site and I declared a moratorium on fun for the evening.  I retired for the night smelling of smoke and disappointment.
Maybe Operation Icicle had run its course.  My first one was in 1999 and I held them regularly throughout high school.  I stopped in college but returned to having them a year after.  Of those attending this evening, Rachel had been attending the longest and was the only one from my high school group to still be in my circle of friends.  For about 1/3 of the people present this was their first one.  Maybe this history and ritual was lost to them.  I’ll be moving downtown within the next half year.  I probably won’t have outdoor winter parties then.

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Operation Icicle is my once a year winter party where a fire is constructed and we collectively laugh at the cold.  Normally I have some help to set up for this event but this year my crack team of six Eagle Scouts proved unable to help.  I was feeling well so was comfortable taking care of everything myself.  I had visited my doctor the previous week who told me to continue to take it easy.  At some point where I had put the sixth tree log into the back of my dad’s truck I determined that I had officially ignored doctor’s orders.
The most glaring violation of this was when moving logs from the house to the camp fire circle.  As I exited the top driveway one fell out and began rolling down W. Bristol Rd.  I stopped the car, grabbed it and threw it in the back of the truck again with the motion of someone picking up and tossing a basketball.

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Deer

I had on my favorite dark blue dress shirt and sweater vest when I received a call that someone wasn’t quite sure how to get to my house for the party I was having that evening. I walked outside to the ledge overlooking Bristol Rd and saw hazard lights blinking, and heard the sounds of broken glass as other cars drove around the stopped vehicle. I ran down my driveway and out to the car and saw two teenagers standing off to the side of the road shaking next to their car which had struck a deer.

Me: Are you ok?
Them: *shiver* nod.
Me: Have you called for help?
Them: *shiver* nod.
Me: Ok, I’m going to push this deer out of the way and then we need to move your car. Do you feel comfortable driving?
Them: *shiver*
Me: I’ll do it.
Them: *shiver* Ok.

Deer shoved, car moved, help called. Time to wait.

Girl #1: Who are you?
Me: My name’s Terry.
Girl #1: Why are you here?
Me: I live in the house behind you and I saw your lights blinking so I ran down.
Girl #2: It was odd to see you come out of the fog.
Me: I suppose it was.
*car pulls up*
Me: This your ride?
Girl #1: It’s my mom, yeah.
Me: Do you feel comfortable driving back?
Girl #1: *blank stare*
Me: Would you like me to drive back?
Girl #2: Thank you.

I drove them back, we chatted during the four minute drive and the girls’ mother drove me back. She made an off hand comment about there not being food in the house so when she dropped me off, I asked her to wait a second and assembled a plate of baked goods from the food at my party. Then she was off into the night.

Everything Else

I think I invited enough people that the group shards could enjoy themselves.  The cluster of Scouts got to have a rope argument while others played Jungle Speed and yet more just ate.

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Top View-Nice shot, Sam.

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Constrictor Hitch-This is what happens when six Eagle Scouts start drinking.

The party went well, and this time I had a lot of food left over instead of an embarrassing amount of food left over.  Most people left between 1 and 2 am.

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With a cherry on top

I feel this is an entirely acceptable way to round out 2012.

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I did four things today.
1) Went to Kevin Ott’s birthday party
2) Purchased jeans
3) Went to a Shiny Toy Guns concert at the North Star Bar
4) Attended a Halloween Party at Kacey’s house

**Kevin’s Party**

Kevin was turning 25 and I gave him the ceremonial gifts of this age point; a copy of Jungle Speed, and an angel food cake. We talked about mostly non-Scout things and this was odd for us as we usually talk about Scout things. He offered me his slot in the Philadelphia Marathon which he wasn’t able to use because of a knee injury and then convinced me to do a Tough Mudder with him sometime in June. Apparently beating the shit out of myself is now one of my hobbies.

**Jeans**

I was attending the concert with Suzie and Jeff and after leaving Kevin’s, learned that they were going to try to skip the opening act and would arrive an hour into the show. Having some time to kill, I stopped at Kohl’s and decided to purchase a pair of jeans. I’ve never worn jeans before except as a small child and then again once for a musical. I am well versed in the periodic chart and 2006 Contingent LIfe Tables but found jean fittings to be utterly baffling. No combination of cut, leg, waist, and brand produced something that felt like it properly fit. To fit my massive calves required a pair of paints with a hula hoop size belt and somehow a 36×32 was shorter than a 36×30 of a different brand. I settled on a pair that compromised on these points that was slightly loose in some places and slightly tight in others. Compromise. I changed into them after purchase and I dare say I looked casual.

**Shiny Toy Guns Concert**

A number of my friends through high school were in bands and I got used to going to crappy shows at shitty venues. Shiny Toy Guns are much better than they ever managed and the North Star Bar is a standard deviation better. The opening act was dreadful, and the one following needed to be a bit tighter. The warm-up act usually doesn’t have the benefit of the crowd knowing the music so cues are important. For instance, if the performer wants the audience to clap, they need to allot a few bars to getting everyone going, and then a long time to justify that start-up. If you leave only enough time that’d be slightly shorter than a bridge, it’s almost rude to the audience and somewhat lame as everyone stops clapping just as everyone’s on board.

The headliners had no such issues and the drummer clearly led the crowd and the keyboardist did a good job of telling the audience how to move. The crowd was a bit static compared to what I think they wanted and the standard rule of “you can only be one standard deviation more excited than the person next to you” held perfectly.

I very much enjoyed the show and wished I had known the performer’s canon better to the point where I could sing along.

**Halloween Party**

Kacey’s family was having a halloween party and Suzie, Jeff, and I arrived right at the point that Mike had gone to bed. I popped up, wished him good night, and returned to the party. I got into an argument over me not finding Bruce Springstein convincing and talked to people. At some point I was holding a cup with a dark beverage in it wearing jeans and an untucked button down shirt. I looked normal.

**Reflection**

There was no activity listed above that was reasonably within my purview as recently as August of 2011. Kevin has made me determined, Mike has made me kind, Kacey has made me trusting, and Suzie has made me brave. Thanks for a good night.

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Bob Tait invited me to his Halloween Party and I was excited to one, try a costume, two see Bob Tait for the first time in several years. Since last we saw each other, he switched jobs, got married, rented a house, and apparently developed a love for high end bourbon. Suzie was an impressive zombie Pikachu, I was Spiderman, Jeff was… Jeff and we headed over.

The theme for the party was Arnold Swartzenegger movies and roughly half of the costumed attendees met this requirement. A few people picked up on the fact that I was Spiderman including a couple dressed as characters from The Hangover. We got talking and they commented on my costume.

Him: Hey, you’re a camera guy, what do you think about having a wedding where we just pass out disposable cameras?
Me: That can turn out well, but it’s usually good to have someone there dedicated to getting certain group shots.
Him: But I don’t care about those.
Me: But your family does.
Her: See, listen to Spiderman.
Him: But photographers are so expensive.
Me: How much are you paying if I may ask?
Him: .
Me: I’d do it for about $500 less and that includes with my assistant.
Him: You have an assistant?
Me: Zombie Pikachu.
Her: We could have Pikachu and Spiderman as our wedding photographers?
Me: Yes, here’s my card.
Him: What are you doing in this picture?
Me: Riding a concrete sheep. I look forward to working with you.

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The house rose slowly and our plans for an early visit to Philly withered. Suzie broke off to attend to some business and the rest of us took a walk around the Art Museum before reuniting. In the interim, Brad and I had talked about driving the van.

Me: How’d you like driving the van?
Brad: It was much easier than I thought it would be.
Me: Yeah, she can dance.
Brad: Slow but graceful.

We searched for a place for dinner and after a few misses dropped off those that had to return directly to Cinci so they could make their connection in New York City. Paul, Suzie, Daniel, and I found Chipotle as the only open restaurant on Memorial Day Monday and ruminated on the week before dropping Suzie off.

Paul, Daniel, and I returned to my house and Paul lingered a bit before departing leaving just Daniel and myself. We returned the van and met up with some friends to chat for the evening.

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John Hewins was having a wedding reception today and asked me to take pictures so while the rest of the gang went to Philadelphia I went there.

The reception went splendidly and was a parade of people I hadn’t seen since high school, their toddlers, and the couple’s families.

John had intended to make it to my party but couldn’t so instead gave me about 40 lbs of left overs.

Party

I nearly missed the start of my own party and my guests ably amused themselves. The evening was hot and I was asked to turn up the air conditioning, I replied I had none but we were able to jury-rig my portable unit to fit in the pool room. As the night progressed, a room would get hot and loud and a small group would break off and move to another room. The herd would detect this shift and everyone else would follow.

Things wound down around 2am and I would like to thank Daniel for being so able at cleaning. There are benefits to having 1/2 of your friends be Eagle Scouts.

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Pat Moore, my aunt, died sometime last night.  Previously, my plan was to drop off Suzie at the train station early in the morning, go back to sleep, see all my guests out to a late brunch and then drive down to Delaware with my brother and his wife to visit her as she fought late stage bile duct cancer.  I got the news driving back from Somerton station and wasn’t much able to get back to sleep.  I asked John and Ken to leave, canceled my lunch plans and sat and talked with Pat and Clara.  They are both in the medical field and are comfortable with death and generally I am too but I was glad for their company.

I didn’t really cry when my uncle Ted died nor at the passing of any of my grandparents.  I didn’t cry when Nate DeTemple passed nor any of the other camp staff members I knew left us.  But over the last year I’ve become either more emotional or more in touch with my own emotional state and while I don’t want to say I was hard hit by the death of my aunt it left me in tears at several points.  She was my favorite aunt/uncle and her decline was gradual and foreseeable but her passing was still forceful.  After Pat and Clara left I did my general browsing and found that Joe Paterno had died.  Someone for whom I have no strong feelings but lamentations at his passing would drown out any epitaph I’d have for the aunt that none of my friends knew.  My sadness passed to anger.  So I called some people, cleaned up some odds and ends left by my guests and drove to my mother’s house to feed her pet bird who knew nothing of why his owner was missing.

I sat in a dark kitchen and as I threw out my second tear-blotted tissue, I ask myself qui sum ego decet, who am I becoming.

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“Wintry mix” is the worst of weather phenomena when one is having a party outdoors.  Rain? Cancel.  Snow? Have.  Mix? Eh.  I was happy to find that wintry mix had resolved to snow which while keeping a number of people away made a delightful setting for those who did make Operation: Icicle.  I like the idea of a winter outdoor party as a campfire makes light and warmth mirroring the human kind of the guests as fist shaken at the depths of winter, a cry of “we shall not” to the season.

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The First of Many

The primary fuel for the fire is left over Christmas trees.  Here’s two at once.

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Two Trees at a Distance

14 people came out.  I think they enjoyed themselves.

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A Bit More of Everyone

My personal highlight of the evening came very near the end.

Guest: What time is it, I’m starting to get cold.
Me: Quarter to 2.
Guest: Wow.

Thank you to those who braved the “wintry mix”.

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Total attendance: 25 including host
Food prepared: 63 lbs
Food remaining: 26 lbs
Food consumed per guest: 1.5 lbs
Hot Appetizers Remaining: 0
Deviled Eggs Remaining: 0
Artisan Cheese Remaining: 0
Fondue Remaining: Almost all of it.  I f-ed up my first fondue :-(

Drinks Purchased or Prepared: 12 gallons
Drinks Remaining: 5 gallons
Drinks consumed per guest: 1.12 quarts
Wassail Remaining: 0
Diet Mountain Dew Remaining: 0

Cost per head: About $22.

There was a ridiculous amount of food but there was also a ridiculous amount of consumption.  The items least touched where the macaroni salad and my fondue.

For next time:
Coordinate guest dishes better
Bring out entree earlier, everyone was full by the time the pork loin and chicken were done
Be more selective in what dishes go in the chaffing dishes

Target Cost Per Head: $17.00

Hours of Preparatory House Cleaning: 30 + clean-up and setup help from guests.
Estimated Seating Capacity of House: 32 unless I get more chairs.

I think I may try again in the Spring if I can find a suitable excuse.