Food + Friends = Fun

Last Night
Our friends/neighbors Chuck and Reba and their kids Madeline and Jack came over for supper last night. We had Madeline and Jack over to play and eat supper with us a while ago to free their parents to attend parent/teacher conferences at school; and when Chuck and Reba came by to pick them up again afterwards, we decided that it had been too long since we'd all had a get-together, so we scheduled Friday's supper.

Susan and Abigail prepared a layout of crudités: radishes, cucumbers, celery, carrots, red peppers, yellow peppers, and orange peppers with ranch dip; and sliced pears and apples with caramel dip. Susan also made three huge pizzas, and the kids drank fruity beverages while the adults drank beer and wine. Susan made brownies for dessert and served them heaped with Schwan's vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup.

The food was terrific; the kids had a great time playing together, as always; and the adults enjoyed visiting and joking (Chuck and Reba are hilarious). However, I had been under-the-weather all week as well as under-rested due to my staying up extremely late each night in an effort to get all my work done for school. My body must have decided that "enough was enough" by the time last night rolled around--at one point in the evening, I could barely keep my eyes open any more! When the host disappears for a span of time and his daughter reports that he's sleeping on his bed, the keen guest takes that as a clue that it's time to gather the kids and head home. I don't think I exhibited great hosting right there--how embarrassing. Thank goodness they're such close friends!

Tonight
Susan and I had supper with another set of friends, Deana and Jim. They invited us and several others over for their second annual pre-Thanksgiving deep-fried turkey potluck supper (remember last year's event?). Susan and I were the first to arrive, so we got to sample some homemade blueberry wine that Deana opened to share with us. After everyone got there with their dishes for the spread, we ate: turkey, ham, tossed salad, vegetable salad, coleslaw, cranberry fruit salad, fresh grapes, li'l' smokies in barbecue sauce, cheese cake, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and blueberry coffee cake (you just never know what all will show up on the table at a potluck).

A lot of the other attendees are our friends by virtue of their being my coworkers, and several of them were involved in the recent community theatre production that Susan and I attended (remember?)--so we had plenty to visit about throughout the evening. They're an educated and humorous crowd; the topics that we covered in our conversation ranged from which English translation of Homer's Greek epic The Odyssey is the best to which male movie stars qualify as "hot" to which comes first in a relationship: friendship or love. An evening spent with those friends is always an interesting one.

Farewell, Happy Birthday, and Good Night

We are a little bit sad, a little bit happy, and a whole lot full! We attended two social events this evening: one farewell supper for our friends Jason and Miranda and one birthday party for my colleague Suzanne. Jason has accepted a job at Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne, WY, so they're moving tomorrow and hosted a final get-together for their friends this evening. Of course it was sad to say goodbye, but it's always exciting to think of new beginnings in better jobs. We wish them all the best!

Jason, Arabella, and Miranda

Suzanne's birthday isn't until Wednesday, but our friend Michelle invited her over to her home for supper this evening and then surprised her with cake . . . and with other guests! We popped over after supper with Jason and Miranda and enjoyed visiting with Suzanne and the others, drinking wine, and eating cake (lemon poppyseed with cream cheese frosting, made by another colleague, Paul).

Our daughters were reminded in advance of the dictum, "Children should be seen and not heard." Yet at both locations, they flouted it! Which was just fine, actually. They played with Jason and Miranda's two-year-old daughter, allowing the adults to visit rather than keep an eye on her; and at Michelle's, they visited with the adults seated near them and kept them amused, I think, with their stories and vocabulary. These girls just can't resist an opportunity to visit! They wouldn't have gotten by well in Victorian England.

Asian Night in SW ND

The university where I work is presenting its production of The Good Woman of Setzuan this weekend, and Susan and I went to see it along with several friends from the university. Beforehand we all gathered for supper at China Doll, a local Chinese restaurant, to socialize in a locale befitting the play itself (which is set in China). We had a great meal and a nice visit with several people whom I don't see regularly.

There weren't many people in the audience, and there were even fewer remaining after intermission. Do you know the play? It's a parable, heavy on the symbolism and metaphor. Some audience members might have been put off by the stylized masks that everyone wore throughout, by the heavy accents of the many international students in the cast, by the mix of surreal elements with realistic plot, by the occasional songs that characters would stop the action for and grab a microphone to perform directly to the audience, by the three-hour running time, by the frigid temperature in the theater, by the play's demand that we consider the effects of capitalism and consumerism on a society's morality (and the director explicitly pointed out the connection to recent economic events and swindling investors in America), etc.

As for myself, I quite enjoyed the work of several performers in particular and laughed out loud at some jokes that caused no reaction whatsoever from other audience members. There were some fun group scenes, well staged as is characteristic of this director's work. And I'm often pleasantly surprised by the technical elements, including the simple but effective way that changes of setting were shown by moving a wooden doorway from one area of the stage to another. All in all, it was a fun themed night out with my wife and some of our friends.

Early Turkey Supper

Fun event tonight: Susan and I were invited to a coworker's house for a potluck Thanksgiving meal. Actually, this coworker, Deana, used to be more directly a coworker; she's the secretary to the vice president of the division in which I used to work before moving into a faculty position. She was also Susan's classmate in high school! Anyhoo, Deana and her husband had a handful of friends over, and we were among those invited.

She served deep-fried turkey*, and the other dishes contributed included chicken/wild rice soup (deliciously savory . . . and made by Susan), roasted herbed potatoes, green bean/French onion casserole, meatballs in white gravy, buns, pumpkin roll, pumpkin bars, and cookies. Our friends Jason (also a coworker) and Miranda (remember?) had their toddler, Arabella, along, and she kept us all entertained thoughout the evening.

Good food and drink + good friends = good times.

* Note to non-residents of southwest ND: "deep-fried turkey" here does not mean a turkey that has been cooked by submerging it into a pot of boiling oil. It means turkey that has been cut into cubes, marinated, breaded, fried to form a savory crust, and then baked until done. I don't get the nomenclature either, but it is truly delicious . . . and ubiquitous at special gatherings, it seems: catered wedding receptions, holiday get-togethers, potlucks, etc. Nummy!