Monday, November 24, 2003
I don't know why it is, but whenever we have company, no matter how much time we give ourselves to prepare, we are always way behind the eight-ball despite our best intentions. I was hoping that everyone would be fashionably late, at least 30 minutes so, but at 7 exactly, as I was rushing out the door to drop off the last bit of trash, our first guests arrived - Karoliina's boss and her two daughters. Not more than 10 minutes later we had a full house.
But let me start off a few hours earlier. Karoliina and I were frantically cleaning and finishing the setup of the house, which is now complete. This party was the ultimate deadline for us to finish moving in and it worked. We've got this awesome little vaccuum cleaner that sucks in dust from everywhere and makes sweeping so much easier than using a broom it's hard for me to believe this little thing isn't in everyhouse worldwide.
We put the turkey in at 4:40, 40 minutes later than I wanted but shit happens. So that gave me an hour and a half to: go get the beer and vegetables; chop the vegetables for the spinach dip (carrots, cucumbers and bell peppers all into sticks); put the rest of the things in storage that needed to be there; and to help straighten the rest of our clean house.
So a few minutes before the turkey was ready I began to get the bread ready - we served ready-made turkey sandwiches with a cranberry jam that K made - 32 sandwiches needed to made with cranberry on one side and butter on the other - and we were running out of time. K still needed to make the icing for the sweet potato pie (our substitute for pumpkin pie and it turned out great) she also need to set out the food and make the pineapple vodka drink. And, of course we needed to clean the kitchen up after we were finished with everything and on top of that we still had to get ourselves ready.
I felt like I was back at Chick-Fil-A during the holiday season lunch rush. I had an assembly line going, making 4 sandwiches at a time. Meanwhile, I put some of the chicken we had marinating into the oven to make some more sandwiches in case the turkey wasn't enough, which of course it was. We still have 10 sandwiches or so left over, along with an entire sweet potato pie and several bottles of red wine, that people were nice enough to bring over and almost 18 beers. I was the only one drinking beer, who 'da thunk it?
I don't know how it happened, but we were ready for the party when it happened and everything went well. My boss came over with his longtime girlfriend, our friends Tapsa and Pirjo and their Norwegien dancer friends who were visiting, Harri, the guy I plat basketball with (he and I are meeting with the local team's manager to try to persuade them to change the music at the games, because it is awful if not laughable - I don't think Ghostbusters gets 'em going the way it used to). I think we had close to 20 people and that is about all the place can hold. Before the booze set in, everyone was in our main room sitting around the table being pretty quiet and then it happened. People began to have fun, myself included and the party went on in full effect for another 5 hours. My future boss was the last to leave. I think this will be a good working relationship. He mentioned to K that he wanted to give me a more lucrative and long term deal, but could not do so right off the bat, so I'm looking forward to getting things started and renegotiating.
One of my favorite aspects of this party was the cleanup, minimal at best. We used paper plates and plastic cups and when we woke up this morning I could hardly believe that we had had a party last night. Normally when we have just 2 guests over for dinner the cleanup is worse than it was for the 20 people we had over last night.
That's all I can write, the Cowboy game just ended and I need to read about it. I can't believe this season, they are 8 and 3 and I haven't seen a game in 2 months. Figures, all my teams are going to become real good just when it happens that I can't watch. All right, now I'm upset. Nakemiin - See you later.
hb
But let me start off a few hours earlier. Karoliina and I were frantically cleaning and finishing the setup of the house, which is now complete. This party was the ultimate deadline for us to finish moving in and it worked. We've got this awesome little vaccuum cleaner that sucks in dust from everywhere and makes sweeping so much easier than using a broom it's hard for me to believe this little thing isn't in everyhouse worldwide.
We put the turkey in at 4:40, 40 minutes later than I wanted but shit happens. So that gave me an hour and a half to: go get the beer and vegetables; chop the vegetables for the spinach dip (carrots, cucumbers and bell peppers all into sticks); put the rest of the things in storage that needed to be there; and to help straighten the rest of our clean house.
So a few minutes before the turkey was ready I began to get the bread ready - we served ready-made turkey sandwiches with a cranberry jam that K made - 32 sandwiches needed to made with cranberry on one side and butter on the other - and we were running out of time. K still needed to make the icing for the sweet potato pie (our substitute for pumpkin pie and it turned out great) she also need to set out the food and make the pineapple vodka drink. And, of course we needed to clean the kitchen up after we were finished with everything and on top of that we still had to get ourselves ready.
I felt like I was back at Chick-Fil-A during the holiday season lunch rush. I had an assembly line going, making 4 sandwiches at a time. Meanwhile, I put some of the chicken we had marinating into the oven to make some more sandwiches in case the turkey wasn't enough, which of course it was. We still have 10 sandwiches or so left over, along with an entire sweet potato pie and several bottles of red wine, that people were nice enough to bring over and almost 18 beers. I was the only one drinking beer, who 'da thunk it?
I don't know how it happened, but we were ready for the party when it happened and everything went well. My boss came over with his longtime girlfriend, our friends Tapsa and Pirjo and their Norwegien dancer friends who were visiting, Harri, the guy I plat basketball with (he and I are meeting with the local team's manager to try to persuade them to change the music at the games, because it is awful if not laughable - I don't think Ghostbusters gets 'em going the way it used to). I think we had close to 20 people and that is about all the place can hold. Before the booze set in, everyone was in our main room sitting around the table being pretty quiet and then it happened. People began to have fun, myself included and the party went on in full effect for another 5 hours. My future boss was the last to leave. I think this will be a good working relationship. He mentioned to K that he wanted to give me a more lucrative and long term deal, but could not do so right off the bat, so I'm looking forward to getting things started and renegotiating.
One of my favorite aspects of this party was the cleanup, minimal at best. We used paper plates and plastic cups and when we woke up this morning I could hardly believe that we had had a party last night. Normally when we have just 2 guests over for dinner the cleanup is worse than it was for the 20 people we had over last night.
That's all I can write, the Cowboy game just ended and I need to read about it. I can't believe this season, they are 8 and 3 and I haven't seen a game in 2 months. Figures, all my teams are going to become real good just when it happens that I can't watch. All right, now I'm upset. Nakemiin - See you later.
hb
// posted by Howard @ 12:35 AM 
