“A Bare Bones Lunch”

Rich Siegel, friend and president of Bare Bones Software, invited me to the Bare Bones "holiday lunch" earlier this week. Yesterday I drove up to his house, and then rode with his "flock" from there to the Bare Bones Galactic Headquarters in the Boston area. ('Flock' because he and his wife Kerri have had a baby African Grey parrot, similar to our own Stevie, since just before Thanksgiving. "Tat'r" and Kerri both made the trip also.)

As I've mentioned, I'm not a Christmasser (read Bounty for a little more on that subject). At least two of the Bare Bonesers (?) are Jewish (Update: I was mistaken, there. C'est la vie! I misinterpreted at least two conversations to come up with that number.) and so presumably do not celebrate Christmas either. Thus, "holiday lunch." If nothing else, it's a chance for everybody to enjoy some good chinese food, chat about stuff not related to work, and tease Rich and Kerri for being so cutesey with each other and obsessed with their bird.

:-D

One of the biggest treats of the day, for me, was finally meeting Jim Correia in person! Jim and I have known each other — virtually speaking — for almost ten years, when we were both active in the Frontier and/or MacScrpt communities. Having Rich, Jim, and Steve Kalkwarf (a bit about him on Gus's site, here) together in the room with me was quite a thrill. I don't have many opportunities to hang around with a room full of programmers! (For example, they all had real sympathy for my trouble writing a parser for a certain language, and each of them at different times mentioned that they know where the author of that language lives and suggested paying him a visit. ;-)

I had a great time, and even came home with treats for our four feathered kids, after visiting the best bird supply store I've ever seen (on our return trip). They even had a Hyacinth Macaw!