party time

It is a rainy rest day that has come none too soon. Perhaps not so restful though as my goal is to finish clearing out the ‘sofabed room’ - there are many trips to the cavernous basement to be made, starting with all 5 suitcases :-0

The party went well. Unfortunately two of the guests got lost so didn’t make it for lunch, but otherwise everyone was here. During setup (while the power was off!) Carm and I brought in a couple of extra tables so we had enough seating for everyone. If I knew it would work out that well I would have tweaked the menu a bit and swapped out the buns for rice.

There was enough food. Counting potatoes in the middle of the night perhaps wasn’t necessary, but I think we would have run out without the extras. I’m glad we bought the sausages to augment the chicken as they were mostly gobbled up. The chicken was a bit dry as it spent too much time in the instant pot as we were waiting for lost guests. The cake from Costco was huge so there was lots of that. We just served lemonade and fruit punch - we have some leftover.

My brain overload a few times and I had to get Carm and Graham to help for a bit till I got my bearings again.

By 5pm most of the guests were gone and the cleanup began in earnest… tables and chairs back outside and downstairs, a million dishes run through the dishwasher, several glasses washed by hand, food packaged up… and then… whew… crash on the couch to enjoy the company of Olaf and Freya, here on one leg of their amazing father/daughter summer vacation. We talked and laughed till I was almost sick with fatigue.

Olaf is 14 years younger than me and I still can’t get the image of him as a little boy out of my minds eye. It is always a pleasure to spend time with him as an adult to see what a fine man he has grown into.

He’s still kept a bit of the kid in him though - I wish I had been able to do the same - I’m just reminded how serious I always am, especially since I’ve been drugged up, I’ve lost the childish wonder and fun. I think to myself that I should work harder at recapturing that, but then I see that I’ve used the serious word ‘work’ and think that it may be of no use! Maybe I need to spend more time with young people to get the silliness back inside me.

Monday morning Carm was up at the crack of dawn for a golf day. I slept in later. Once I put some water in my hair to stop it from standing straight up, and slipped on some nicer clothes, I joined Olaf and Freya and a cup of coffee before making a huge pancake breakfast. That small girl, just 7 years old, managed to eat SIX pancakes! She’s a tall, slender girl so must burn a lot of calories playing around.

After breakfast we went to Aunt Kari’s house for a swim (in Olaf’s rented convertible Mustang - so much for taming my hair! It was standing straight on end by the end of our adventure), and then DQ for a quick lunch and blizzards. So much fun!

Olaf dropped my off home and then I hung around until it was time to load Kabira and Spike into the truck for their vet appointment. It couldn’t have come at a better time as something happened to Kabira on Sunday - she went from a dog who could get around reasonably well to an old dog who could barely walk. She’d aged 10 years.  We were pretty worried and wondered if this was the end for her.

Dr. Carty took a good look at her and determined it was something with her neck and prescribed pain medication. Kabira seems a bit better today.

Spike was not a good dog - where did all his training go? But he cooperated enough for Dr. C to get a good look at him. He’ll be scheduled for a dental in the next month or so.

Leftovers for supper then I was into bed before 9 and asleep not long after. I was beat!