Work in Ottawa

I was really wishing I had my palm with me today to take notes about my evening that I'm about to share with you... I am bound to forget something in my state of mind. =)

So I woke up this morning at 5am to fly to Ottawa. I fell back asleep on the plane before it took off. The very unfortunate part is that I lost my neck pillow on my last trip to Saskatchewan. =( I bought a new one, but it pales in comparison. I will be shopping again and selling this one at our MS garage sale. Thanks to all of you who have donated articles for our sale. =D

Back to work... normally I would not blog about work... I don't think... but tonight I'm sure is set the bar for my week. I arrived in Ottawa to find out they were not discussing anything of interest to me so I worked on other stuff. Then they called to say we are going for drinks... I missed lunch so I'm wondering if drinks is equivalent to supper, so of course I agree. Well I run into the lawyers from the other party downstairs... they are very familiar with dining together and are pleased to see me of course. I'm sure eager to share their food with me - as I have a reputation for picking off other people's plates... and as expected I shared nachos, creme brule, sole, beer, and wine. It's not my fault!!

So we're off to the Royal Oak for drinks, just down the road. Great! Short roll home. I meet up with my party and off we trod. We find the Royal Oak on the corner! WOW!!! Really close. Order beers and then shortly realize there must be another Oak bar cause we're alone. Well there are 3 Royal Oaks on this street within 10 blocks!!! So bottoms up and we trod off up the road to the second Royal Oak. =) Yes in half an hour I drank a pint of beer and I still have to have another drink with the gang... So I am feeling the beer. Oh and I should say, I wanted a local beer... they didn't serve Bass!!! Didn't sell enough they said. So I had a Keith's... I could have been at home!!! We find the rest of the group, I order a half pint and continue to monitor my inside voice gradually increasing to my raucous voice. And my laugh!! Good lord you may have heard it at home in your sitting rooms tonight.

Then we decide we need supper (I definitely need food) so we up and trod back down the street to Don Alfonso's for spanish cuisine. Now it's supper and our group really likes wine with supper... and appetizers... and I like dessert. I have a weird stitch in my side that I hope disappears soon. Last time it came I had overeaten and it lasted for months!!! It is absolutely amazing how we can disagree at the negotiation table, but beer, wine and food makes us the best of buddies. =)

The part I left out is that we started drinks and supper at 5pm-ish... we finished at 10pm-ish and now I have to work. What the heck?!?! I'm partially drunk and really tired and have to finish 3 maps by 7:30 tomorrow morning... I may have to agree with the lawyer... perhaps I should not work right now. But the time zone change tomorrow morning will be rough. I feel some hick ups coming on...

Good night.