Christmas party!

As we've done for the last several years, the library staff had a holiday party last night. No, we weren't just procrastinating. It's deliberate, getting the event out of the time when everyone is so busy that you can't find a suitable date.

At first it was set for the Chinese restaurant in town, but then they called and said they couldn't do it that day because they'd be closed. When asked how long they were going to be closed, the answer was "Forever." The owner decided to retire, and the place is sold. A flurry of discussion about alternate venues focused on other Chinese places, but all were farther afield so we ended up at the German-American style place, which is really quite excellent.

However, when we all arrived, we found the director laying out Chinese horoscope place mats over the top of the ones provided by the restaurant. It turns out that the theme of the party had been planned for Chinese new year (all right, a little early rather than late, but hey) and we went ahead with that anyway. Each of us received a party favor, a tiny knitted sweater or mitten that contained a little card describing our sign in the Chinese zodiac and a miniature charm of the animal in question. She had researched carefully, so that people with birthdays in the crucial time frame where new year might have fallen before or after their birth date in that particular year were properly assigned.

I was the only ox. "You are logical and prefer peace and quiet. May take on the problems of the world and be downhearted. The sheep will bring trouble. Join with the snake or rooster." (Actually my mate and partner is a rabbit.)

We had two dragons, two rats, a snake, a sheep, a monkey, a rooster, a horse, a boar, and an ox. Rather more diverse than our western signs, which have nearly half of us in Sagittarius. Rabbit, tiger, and dog were missing.

Forecast last night said three inches of snow today. I see now they've cut it back to one inch during the day and another tonight. At the moment it's too cold (10°F) to snow. Usually we get the heaviest snows when the temperature is just below freezing.

Author's biography

For those still interested, here are the three versions I sent off and told them to pick and choose as they wished:
( Cut to spare the uninterested )

Thanks to tinbender for his hilarious poll, which I used in creating the "silly" version, and thanks to those who actually voted, helping me to choose the best options.

They also asked for a list of prior publications which I dodged. I don't think furry readers will care about a long list of technical and academic articles, or even about my one previous piece of fiction, which was gay male erotica and not furry.