Leftovers

Yesterday's barbecue was a lot of fun; a lot of work, but a lot of fun. We didn't take a count, but we figure we had somewhere between 15-20 guests. We had enough food for 35. Oops. Go here for the pictures of the party.

The food was good and the company was great. I didn't get to spend very much time with company as I wound up being too busy in the kitchen. Note to self: pay more attention to the voice in your head that tells you to stay up until 2 a.m. cooking so that you don't have to do so much work the day of the party. And stop obssessing over having everything in the house just so...that just cuts into cooking prep time! Oh, wait a minute...that's just me.

Everything turned out wonderfully, but wouldn't have if I hadn't had help from Jeff, who came over about two hours early with Paul and helped us with everything from vacuuming to train station shuttling to food prep; Paul was my official taster. The meal wouldn't have been ready for hours if I hadn't had help! Thanks!!

Jess barbecued burgers and hot dogs and ran shuttle service to and from the train station, not to mention putting in hours and hours of housework in the days leading up to the party. The house would never have been ready without all the work he did getting it ready. I have had a tough few weeks at work and haven't been able to do anything in the evenings related to housework, so Jess has been picking up the slack. Thanks, honey.

My Bloody Marys were a big hit, with people requesting seconds, even thirds. I can't say I blame them. I think they are about the best Bloody Marys I have ever tasted. Crash and Deirdre concurred with that evaluation.

The party was a whirlwind of activity: people chatting in the sunroom; people watching TV in the front room, and those with computers hooked up to the wireless network which made for lots of conversation as people gathered around dharmabums' screen for a look at pictures of very hot men. People hanging out in the kitchen talking. I was thorougly enjoying the people enjoying our home.

As a person who loves to entertain, the saddest part of the party is when the guests leave. The adrenaline is gone and the fatigue sets in.

So it was cathartic to open up my computer after everything was over and discover a little something Patrick left me. I am a list-maker and I had the computer in the kitchen going over my list of things I had to do for the party. At one point Patrick was admiring my computer, and it so happened that my document was still up on the screen. It had lists of things to do from Wednesday to Saturday, each denoted by time; for example:

Thursday evening:
Make crust for cobbler
Bake beans
Prepare potatoes
Smoke and bake brisket

Et cetera, et cetera... So Patrick added an additional entry at the bottom, which I noticed him doing at the time, but was very entertaining when I came back to it at the end of the day:

Saturday afternoon:
Entertain the queens

Thanks, PatCHy, I needed that! Oh yes, and thanks to Patrick and Michael for the lovely lawn decorations - they were hysterical. I should have known better that something was up when you asked for directions to the nearest Wal-Mart.