Debate: DisAd14 and so forth

It was not easy, but we had to bow out of the DisAd13, which I assume will become the DisAd14 if those other people don’t want to end up spending all their time waiting on line. Although I did give O’C a copy of the Unofficial Guide for Christmas… The thing is, with Richard (the spouse) moving to the US of A in March to begin seeking gainful employment, it could get very dicey immediately taking a week off (assuming he’s lucky enough to get hired that quickly). Also, with Kate out of commission for a while in her new job thanks to her accident, and uncertainty about when she’s going back, it seemed to make sense to play it safe. It was a family decision. I am now trusting that we will proceed according to plan 365 days later. I regret getting everyone all excited about it, but then again, as I told the prospective travellers, look at all that extra anticipation they have to look forward to! This also means that I’ll get a week more of vacation days to fold into my debate operations, which translates into things like taking full days off instead of halves, when appropriate. Things were sort of cut close otherwise; I get umpty-ump days off from the DJ, but even umpty-ump are often not enough with multiple vacations (there’s a European trip already planned in the Spring) and endless three day forensic weekends.

Sigh…

Meanwhile, O’C seems to be especially impressed that, at various points in my life, I was not the age I am today, and is posting a bunch of old pictures on Facebook as a result. Some people are easy to impress, I guess. I have more pictures around here somewhere. There’s me smoking my first cigarette, drinking my first neat Jack Daniels, buying my first brick of cocaine from my partners in the Colombian cartel, giving an audience to Paul Pius XII, tearing down the Berlin Wall, marching with Mao, etc. My favorite is rather young, which is me as a sperm. I’ll get that one to O’C ASAP. I have even more hair in that one, which seems to be the major attraction.

Jeesh!

It has been time to get down to some business. There’s actually a speech tournament this weekend, with a boatload of Sailors all prepped and ready with their Dec speeches all burned into their hot little brains. On the one hand I’m glad to see that we’re using Dec to train our noobs, but on the other hand, all that Dec can turn the brain to molasses. Oh, well. They’ll be doing something more useful before long. A few of them are heading to the Gem of Harlem, for instance, where they have to double-enter. From little sprouts do big interpers grow.

Still waiting on Gem rooms, by the way, although we should have them by the beginning of next week. At that point we can get the first final wave off the wait list. It’s been a long haul. Now we’re in the process of acquiring judges. It tends to be a tough-ish weekend, but it’ll happen.

And then there’s Byram Hills and Academy Debate, which is shaping up nicely. I’m waiting on O’C to provide us with our PF keynote person, but the rest is about ready to go. At the moment, registration is about 50% up from the previous year. Even with the inevitable paring down that always occurs, that’s a good sign.

And so 2013 begins.