Dinner Day 20, and a Census Push to Deadline

Yesterday we had a 12-hour work party at my house for our Group Quarters Enumeration Team, which had the unenviable task of processing, checking, and double-checking census forms for the dormitories on campus at UCD. I started my day by moving furniture and putting leaves in the dining room table so we could work in an assembly line fashion. You would think that the census effort would be much higher-tech than #2 pencils, blue-or-black ballpoint pens, and paper forms on someone's dining room table, but there you have it.

Dan likened it to the wheat harvest, with us trying to gather in every single grain of wheat from the field at the peak of ripeness. Actually, that's not a bad analogy but no one gave us any picnics nor are there any celebrations. When it's all over, you hope and pray for a low percentage of errors and a high percentage of completed forms, so that resources dependent on the census are allocated where they are most needed.

Dinner under the circumstances was quite the nifty affair, with all team members having to reach a logical stopping point in their work so they could bail out and let me catch some dinner. Fortunately, it was Tuesday and Sean's night to cook. He made the family some killer omelettes, stuffed with sauteed mushrooms, onions, Canadian bacon, and cheese. He seasoned them with a few shakes of Montreal Steak Seasoning for an extra savory touch, and served them with asparagus spears alongside.

It was a real winning combination and his timing was impeccable-he got Dan and himself served, and my omelette came hot off the stove just as I was laying down my government-issued black ballpoint pen.