Today was our group’s holiday lunch at the office — not to be confused with tomorrow’s office-wide holiday party — and so we trekked down a few blocks to Brasserie Les Halles, perhaps best known as the setting for Anthony Bourdain’s cooking memoir Kitchen Confidential. We’ve been going there for a few years now, and the food’s usually pretty good, even if we’ve never seen Bourdain in the flesh. (He’s apparently still “honorary Chef-at-Large,” whatever that means, although he hasn’t manned the kitchen in quite some time, and I’d be surprised if he’s often there.) I had a very tasty plate of duck confit, and there was a bottle of wine for the table. All in all, not a bad way to spend a couple of hours on a work day.
I spent the rest of the day thinking I might just get everything I need done this week finally done, before I’m off on my two-week vacation…and that’s a dangerous feeling, I have no doubt, just inviting something to go wrong at the final hour. Most of it’s just waiting for information to come in, so I can authorize something else, and get this thing finalized before I leave. It won’t be the end of the world if it waits until January — and I could probably even check my e-mail from home next week — but it would be really nice to get it off my plate.
Not an early Christmas miracle or anything, but a nice way to cap 2010 at the job.
Nice! No staff luncheon here. The office potluck was cancelled, and since we’re getting Christmas eve off, no pizza lunch. I’ll live.
I hope you’re able to clear off your desk so that you can enjoy your vacation!