How to Have a Birthday Party for Grant
Grant turned 20 on Sunday. For various reasons we decided to have a birthday celebration yesterday, on Monday rather than Sunday.
In hindsight I can report on what is involved.
1. Invite six of Grant's friends, two of whom you've never met. Note the absence of some of Grant's friends who are very sane and quite sensible.
2. Clean the main rooms of the house--all of which have been neglected since Mom went to the hospital. Close doors to other rooms. Leave light off in sewing room where you can't close the door. Pray that no mouse chooses party time to scuttle across the floor. Make note of need to clean the bathroom. Thank Hiromi profusely for cleaning it before he disappears into the tub.
3. Put the Christmas Poinsettia tablecloth on the dining room table. Cover it with a clear plastic tablecloth.
4. Cut up $25.00 worth of roast beef into cubes for a curry topping. Stir-fry it till begins to brown. Melt a stick of butter and add 3 diced onions and three cloves of minced garlic. Cook till soft. Peel potatoes and carrots and bring to a boil in water. Combine everything and add salt and pepper and two whole packages of curry flavoring paste. Fill a seven-quart cock pot and a three-quart slow cooker. Begin simmering at noon.
5. Send grocery list to town with Grant. Include ingredients for Ida Y.'s cranberry salad and taffy ingredients. Mention casually that, now that we have a proper front porch, it would be nice to have icicle lights to adorn the perimeter.
6. Answer the phone innumerable times throughout the day--all related to Mom and/or people going to or staying at the hospital or seeing to things at home, etc. Send out one email to siblings to brainstorm about how to get Mom to eat. Recall Mom's eating rules for us and consider enforcing them with her.
7. Cook two 7-cup batches of rice in the electric rice cookers. Fix a tossed salad, consider the options and then decide to offer only the traditional seasoned rice vinegar dressing for the salad. Good chance for them to learn to apply the "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" adage. Set the table with the company dishes and Dorcas' help. (One person reports during the meal that he's not a vinegar kind of guy. Another asks if he has to put vinegar dressing on his salad. He eats it without dressing. Another gives the vinegar dressing lavish praise and uses it generously.)
8. Reconsider the plan for cooking taffy for the after supper activity. Decide that you would prefer to override Grant's protests (I don't really think this is a taffy-type crowd.) and go ahead with the taffy, given the possible alternatives they might think up. Past experience tells me that explosives and firearms hold a lot of fascination for this crowd.
9. Grant returns from town with a fresh haircut and a string of lights which he proceeds to hang from the beams around the edge of the porch. Hiromi notes Grant's freshly-shorn hair and says, "Why did you get a haircut in the winter? I like to let my fur grow longer in the winter." (????)
Grant replies that when his hair started falling into his eyes, he decided this is it.
10. Let Grant and his crowd have the dining room table to themselves. Hiromi, Joel, Shane and Dorcas, and I fix plates and eat in the living room. I start cooking the taffy and do not stir it as well as I should till everything is dissolved. I eat rice and curry instead.
11. The boys take small servings on the first round, except for Grant, who has a two-inch-deep pile of rice and curry covering most of his plate. I wonder if they always eat such modest amounts, then decide they're probably wary of an unfamiliar food. Turns out I was right. The big bowls of the main dish are cleaned out by the end of the meal, and we end up with a very small amount of leftovers. I tell them there's dessert, but they'll have to work for it first. Joel tells me that there's roughness on the bottom of the taffy kettle when he stirs it on one of his trips to the kitchen for refills. This is not good.
12. Dorcas helps me with the last steps in the taffy process and, when it's cool enough, I bring butter (for greasing hands), and the taffy pans to the dining room. I tell everyone that Grant wasn't sure if this was a good idea, so if they agree with him, don't blame him. (I should have said if they thought it was a good idea, be sure and tell him.) I also note that the little black flecks are due to "operator error" and assure them that taffy almost always tastes good even when it doesn't look great. Then I say everyone needs clean hands (at which point several of them look at their hands and announce that they look clean.). But everyone eventually trails off to wash their hands, (Grant reminds them to rinse well too. No soap taste in the taffy.) and begins getting buttered up.
13. I can't believe how fast every batch of taffy turns into the perfect shade of white. These guys have lots of muscle and energy, and very little need to fuss with warming it in the microwave for ten seconds or step outside to cool it a bit. J.T. has a knack for making the ropes just the right thickness and getting just the right twist. He busily snips the ropes into short pieces and everyone chows down to their heart's content. I pop popcorn to go with it. Something is wrong with the popcorn. It refuses to pop nicely. Gotta add some moisture to the jar and leave it set for a few days. I bring small zipper-bags for the guys to fill with taffy to take home. Only JT sits still long enough to catch on and do something about it.
14. The conversation of the evening seems to have a recurring theme. It has to do with a digestive issue that can be relieved by eating lots of fiber and drinking lots of water and getting lots of exercise. Only they mention things like taffy and concrete pumping truck grease in connection with it. Right in our dining room.
15. Justin heads to the living room and stretches out on the couch. He turns onto his stomach with a small groan and explains that he ate a lot of supper and he ate a lot after supper. He soon goes to sleep and stays asleep while the others plot where they might be able to go in his truck before he wakes up. One person notes that the truck tank has lots of gas in it. While everyone watches, one sadistic soul pours a small amount of ice water onto Justin's back. He rouses while everyone heads out the door at a high rate of speed, Justin hard on the trail in his stocking feet, water glass in hand--single-digit temps notwithstanding.
16. They filter back in one by one to retrieve their shoes and coats and say thanks for the meal. Then they disappear to Kenny's house to help him put a heater somewhere so his pipes don't freeze, and I think I do not want to know what else they may plan on doing.
17. Hiromi and I work on cleaning up.
In hindsight I can report on what is involved.
1. Invite six of Grant's friends, two of whom you've never met. Note the absence of some of Grant's friends who are very sane and quite sensible.
2. Clean the main rooms of the house--all of which have been neglected since Mom went to the hospital. Close doors to other rooms. Leave light off in sewing room where you can't close the door. Pray that no mouse chooses party time to scuttle across the floor. Make note of need to clean the bathroom. Thank Hiromi profusely for cleaning it before he disappears into the tub.
3. Put the Christmas Poinsettia tablecloth on the dining room table. Cover it with a clear plastic tablecloth.
4. Cut up $25.00 worth of roast beef into cubes for a curry topping. Stir-fry it till begins to brown. Melt a stick of butter and add 3 diced onions and three cloves of minced garlic. Cook till soft. Peel potatoes and carrots and bring to a boil in water. Combine everything and add salt and pepper and two whole packages of curry flavoring paste. Fill a seven-quart cock pot and a three-quart slow cooker. Begin simmering at noon.
5. Send grocery list to town with Grant. Include ingredients for Ida Y.'s cranberry salad and taffy ingredients. Mention casually that, now that we have a proper front porch, it would be nice to have icicle lights to adorn the perimeter.
6. Answer the phone innumerable times throughout the day--all related to Mom and/or people going to or staying at the hospital or seeing to things at home, etc. Send out one email to siblings to brainstorm about how to get Mom to eat. Recall Mom's eating rules for us and consider enforcing them with her.
7. Cook two 7-cup batches of rice in the electric rice cookers. Fix a tossed salad, consider the options and then decide to offer only the traditional seasoned rice vinegar dressing for the salad. Good chance for them to learn to apply the "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" adage. Set the table with the company dishes and Dorcas' help. (One person reports during the meal that he's not a vinegar kind of guy. Another asks if he has to put vinegar dressing on his salad. He eats it without dressing. Another gives the vinegar dressing lavish praise and uses it generously.)
8. Reconsider the plan for cooking taffy for the after supper activity. Decide that you would prefer to override Grant's protests (I don't really think this is a taffy-type crowd.) and go ahead with the taffy, given the possible alternatives they might think up. Past experience tells me that explosives and firearms hold a lot of fascination for this crowd.
9. Grant returns from town with a fresh haircut and a string of lights which he proceeds to hang from the beams around the edge of the porch. Hiromi notes Grant's freshly-shorn hair and says, "Why did you get a haircut in the winter? I like to let my fur grow longer in the winter." (????)
Grant replies that when his hair started falling into his eyes, he decided this is it.
10. Let Grant and his crowd have the dining room table to themselves. Hiromi, Joel, Shane and Dorcas, and I fix plates and eat in the living room. I start cooking the taffy and do not stir it as well as I should till everything is dissolved. I eat rice and curry instead.
11. The boys take small servings on the first round, except for Grant, who has a two-inch-deep pile of rice and curry covering most of his plate. I wonder if they always eat such modest amounts, then decide they're probably wary of an unfamiliar food. Turns out I was right. The big bowls of the main dish are cleaned out by the end of the meal, and we end up with a very small amount of leftovers. I tell them there's dessert, but they'll have to work for it first. Joel tells me that there's roughness on the bottom of the taffy kettle when he stirs it on one of his trips to the kitchen for refills. This is not good.
12. Dorcas helps me with the last steps in the taffy process and, when it's cool enough, I bring butter (for greasing hands), and the taffy pans to the dining room. I tell everyone that Grant wasn't sure if this was a good idea, so if they agree with him, don't blame him. (I should have said if they thought it was a good idea, be sure and tell him.) I also note that the little black flecks are due to "operator error" and assure them that taffy almost always tastes good even when it doesn't look great. Then I say everyone needs clean hands (at which point several of them look at their hands and announce that they look clean.). But everyone eventually trails off to wash their hands, (Grant reminds them to rinse well too. No soap taste in the taffy.) and begins getting buttered up.
13. I can't believe how fast every batch of taffy turns into the perfect shade of white. These guys have lots of muscle and energy, and very little need to fuss with warming it in the microwave for ten seconds or step outside to cool it a bit. J.T. has a knack for making the ropes just the right thickness and getting just the right twist. He busily snips the ropes into short pieces and everyone chows down to their heart's content. I pop popcorn to go with it. Something is wrong with the popcorn. It refuses to pop nicely. Gotta add some moisture to the jar and leave it set for a few days. I bring small zipper-bags for the guys to fill with taffy to take home. Only JT sits still long enough to catch on and do something about it.
14. The conversation of the evening seems to have a recurring theme. It has to do with a digestive issue that can be relieved by eating lots of fiber and drinking lots of water and getting lots of exercise. Only they mention things like taffy and concrete pumping truck grease in connection with it. Right in our dining room.
15. Justin heads to the living room and stretches out on the couch. He turns onto his stomach with a small groan and explains that he ate a lot of supper and he ate a lot after supper. He soon goes to sleep and stays asleep while the others plot where they might be able to go in his truck before he wakes up. One person notes that the truck tank has lots of gas in it. While everyone watches, one sadistic soul pours a small amount of ice water onto Justin's back. He rouses while everyone heads out the door at a high rate of speed, Justin hard on the trail in his stocking feet, water glass in hand--single-digit temps notwithstanding.
16. They filter back in one by one to retrieve their shoes and coats and say thanks for the meal. Then they disappear to Kenny's house to help him put a heater somewhere so his pipes don't freeze, and I think I do not want to know what else they may plan on doing.
17. Hiromi and I work on cleaning up.
posted by Mrs. I at
7:00 AM
3 Comments:
Smiling we are! I like your description of the evening! On another note, we are closely following your Mother's condition and want you and the rest of the family to know that we care and pray for God's best for her and all of you. Willard
By
Unknown, at 12/16/2008
This is wonderful!
". . .explosives and firearms hold a lot of fascination for this crowd." LOL
By
Dorcas, at 12/16/2008
Thanks a ton mom! It was great!!!
By
Unknown, at 12/16/2008
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