Christmas Party Success

This past Friday was the annual Computol Christmas party. This was only my second party, but I felt immediately comfortable with everyone's families. Dinner at Stella's was excellent this year (I had the best prime rib in years), the dessert decent, and the presents... well, yeah.

This year we received lots of fun little gifts along with our usual "big ticket" item. A desk calendar, a Chick-Fil-A promotional calendar with free food, a McDonalds holiday promotional packet, a fantastic LED flashlight, a bungee cord (exactly the kind I need in my hiking kit), and finally... a new laptop!

The laptop is an HP Envy TouchSmart Ultrabook 4t-1100. This is a mid-range consumer "Ultrabook" that is generally designed to compete with systems like the MacBook Air. The big wrinkle: it has a 10-point touchscreen that works wonderfully with Windows 8. I have yet to finish analyzing the machine, but so far it definitely hits all the marks as a solid desk machine. It is a bit heavy at 5.5 pounds for my back, and the screen is a little dim for my tastes, but I will definitely find a home for it in my daily or weekly workflow. All in all, a great gift.

I have tomorrow off work (mandatory vacation to use up), so I am taking this long weekend to visit Sandusky for a small trip to Kalahari Resort. This coming (short) week of work will be a pre-holiday sprint to finish three projects at work, so I will be plenty busy. Next weekend kicks off a Reboot for myself, followed by our family Christmas and all the fun of two 4- and 5-day holiday weekends.

B3 out.