A tick in the plus column

Friday afternoon presented another of the reasons to live in New Orleans:
One can always find someone to have a drink with. Even during the day.

A certain software program in the Office Suite (one that rhymes with HELL) was giving me a few issues. I worked myself into a bona fide snit trying to figure it out. Thoroughly irritated, I called my Excel Guy (thanks, J!). He works for a big bank in Houston. Generous though he is with his time--or their time as it may have been--we did not end the conversation with full systems go as I hoped.
Our conversation ended shortly after I insisted 'Yes, I do where the Start icon on my computer is.'

I moved on to a plan B compromise of running my desktop and laptop side by side so I could run two different spreadsheets simultaneously.

That's when I ran into the second snafu: green flags. In the upper left hand corner of each cell. Over 2,000 of them. The only way I could manage to get rid of the flags was to double click in each cell. Individually. 4,000 clicks. Without a mouse since I'd left it on my dining table.

I quickly moved on to yet another plan B compromise: gin.
I called my gin guy (he's local--what good is an out-of-town gin guy?) and said I'd be there in under an hour.
True to my word, I arrived by 3:47.

Everything was fine once I walked through the door; he directed me to the fridge where gin & grapefruit was mixed by the gallon. Raymond Carver wrote 'Booze takes a lot of time and effort if you're going to do a good job with it.' It's worthwhile to collect a few people willing to make such an investment.