Our big, backyard party on Saturday turned out to be a lot of fun, despite a relatively low turnout. In past years we've managed to attract 70+ people, but this year's attendance was a modest 48 (not counting me or my husband), out of about 175 people invited.
The band set up and played three short sets (which meant we played almost all of the songs twice). It was the first time many of my friends had heard me sing or my husband play drums, so that was an interesting experience. Everyone was quite complimentary and I really enjoyed singing again after such a long break. The "reunion performance" with my old band didn't materialize due to scheduling conflicts, but I'm sure we'll have other opportunities later.
We didn't have quite as many children at the party as I thought we might. In the words of one set of parents who'd left their four kids at home, "We thought we'd have more fun without them."
I'd purchased a playground ball, a "bumper golf" set from good, old Wham-o, put up our badminton net, and invested in a new box of sidewalk chalk. The chalk and the ball were the most popular with the child guests, followed closely by my friend N.'s pet schnauzer and a Hoberman sphere from my office that my niece brought outside.
Because the party was a potluck, there was a lot of wonderful food but I was so busy running around that I barely had a chance to eat. I lit our charcoal grill before the party started and guests used it all day to cook their own hot dogs and burgers. I have about six pounds of hot dogs in my freezer left over from the party, but I'm sure I'll get to them all eventually.
I'd gotten a large keg of wheat beer and a small keg of pale ale. We have leftover wheat beer running out our ears (figuratively), mainly because the tap we originally used didn't work very well and nobody wanted to drink cups of foam. I've swapped taps with the empty keg and I've been keeping the wheat beer iced and transporting it from place to place as we attend additional parties, but that only serves to make it foamy and difficult to dispense again. I may end up taking most of it back with the keg, unfortunately.
The party cleanup went pretty swiftly on Sunday afternoon, except that I left a couple of indoor tables outside meaning to get them later and they got rained on before I got back out. Oops.
Today we have Labor Day itself. The sun is shining and there's another party coming up later this afternoon. Maybe I'll have a nap this afternoon, as I did yesterday (only this time I'll lie in bed instead of curling up in a chair and drooling on my own hair).
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Jane's Dark Cloud of Automobile Misfortune Update:
My mechanic and insurance company have declared the flooded car a total loss and the insurance company is throwing out distressingly low settlement figures. We'll have to see where that ends up.
Yesterday I washed the Ford and enjoyed its sparkling adequacy until my husband backed out of the driveway and HIT IT! He called to tell me and I thought I was going to have a brain hemorrhage. The word "apoplexy" took on a whole new meaning for me. He was all, "We'll get the dent taken out, blah, blah, blah," but all I could hear was, "I just wrecked the last car you have left."
May I say, "Aaaaagggggghhhhhh!" Thank you.
Hi Jane,
I'm sorry to hear about your car, but I have to admit that I couldn't help but laugh out loud when I read your post. If it's not one thing...
Posted by: Mark Beck | September 06, 2004 at 06:46 PM