Summer Party Pictures

Some pictures from Saturday's festivities.

 Part of the spread - yum!

 The birthday boy (on the left) getting a birthday kiss.

 The crab table!

 He completed a Rebel Race earlier in the day. He was pretty hot and tired!

 Slippin' and slidin'.

Everybody wave to the camera!

Heat Wave

Photo found on Funnyjunk

Most of the nation is facing a massive heat wave at the moment. Yes, it's wicked-crazy-hot. I'm currently playing with ideas as to how to proceed with our party tomorrow; they're predicting a high of 102F, which doesn't take into account the heat index. There is food to go bad, sun burns, heat exhaustion and gallons of sweat to work with. There's also the fact that I might just melt into a puddle after an hour in that beating sun.

The crabs will still be outside because, well, they're not really an indoor food. Luckily the crab table sits under our sunroom and will be shaded the entire time. There is always alcohol involved at our party, and it worries me what might happen to those who don't consume enough water to stay hydrated while indulging in the booze. The food will now go inside on our kitchen island and table. We generally turn off our AC altogether on party day because there are so many people going in and out of the house, plus we turn one of our speakers around in the living room window to allow music on the deck. It's simply not going to be an option tomorrow. We'll turn the AC up from the comfort level we normally keep it at, but we'll still have to keep it on. We won't survive otherwise. Plus, part of our crew will be coming from a funeral and will have already been out in the hot sun for awhile. We'll still have water in our kiddie pool and the slip 'n slide will be ready, but it's going to make for an interesting day. On the flip side, I'm thankful we're still able to host the party and we didn't lose power in this heat like thousands did. Very thankful!

Wish us luck, and to everyone else surviving this heat - stay as cool as you can!

Summer Party Menu - 2012 Edition

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Wow, I haven't posted in a whole month. Shocker! But not reeeeeally. Happy birthday to America today - I'm at home, alone, gearing up for our annual summer party. Cleaning, prepping, shopping and making cold spinach dip for our potluck at work tomorrow. Here's a quick run through of what we're providing said party. A friend of ours has a lot of still-frozen hot dogs and hamburgers from a recent cookout, so they're providing those and picking up the buns for us, too. Such sweethearts. 

Baked Vidalia onion dip
7 layer taco dip
Dijon-bacon dip for pretzels
Ham-pickle-cream cheese rollups
Jalapeno thingies
Cheese ball
Assorted veggies/crackers/bread/chips to accompany all appetizers
Grilled sausages
Steamed blue crabs
Lemon bars

Everyone who comes is welcome to bring a dish but doesn't necessary have to, so we'll have an assortment of other goodies as well. I'll be first to acknowledge the unhealthiness of this menu, however I've tried to go the high road. Lots of veggies. Fruit salads. And you know what? No one wants to eat it and it gets thrown away the next morning during clean up. People apparently want to indulge at our party, so instead of throwing money down the drain yet again, I'll simply provide what they want. And now to get off this couch and clean several bathrooms. Let the fun begin!

Summer Partypalooza 2011

Our annual slip 'n slip - crabfest - partypalooza was yesterday. It was amazing, awesome, fabulous and stellar, all rolled into one. I save money all year for it, everyone looks forward to it and Mother Nature has cooperated for the past 4 years (the ones I've been to). What more can a person ask for than great weather, yummy food and super friends? Love it!

The slip 'n slide. EPIC, especially when we throw some dish soap on it for maximum lubrication.

One of our guys woke up with this bruise. We assume it's from the slip 'n slide but have no real idea how he got it.

Crab table. I found ones that were reasonably price (thank goodness 'cause we got a bushel and a half!), and they were super meaty and large. Awesome.

On the left, we have the chicken fajita dip a friend suggested I make. Shelly, it more than lived up to our expectations. Well, that's what I hear, but I didn't actually get to taste it; it was gone that fast! On the right, a guest brought homemade mac 'n cheese with bacon, stewed tomatoes and Velveeta. I don't even like mac 'n cheese (probably because I'm not really a pasta person), but this was really, really tasty.

Beer pong and flip cup in the garage. First year, and it worked out really well!

A guest brought this super cute "sand" cake in a sand castle bucket. She actually took flip flop cookies on sticks and carefully pulled the sticks out to get the cookies for the top (knowing how crazy I am about flip flops and all). She always makes the cutest things for our parties!

The beautiful crabs. Yummy!

Me and a friend of mine. We've been friends since 8th grade, and her family comes up for the party every year. This was Friday night --- food prep time!

Ugh. Here be the kitchen this morning. Thank goodness a friend of mine did a lot of cleaning last night. You can't tell from the way it looks here, but she did a lot. This though? This is all me. And it's still not all cleaned up as I write this. Gotta save somethin' for Buppy to do tomorrow since he took the day off, right? Right.

We grilled some hot dogs for lunch, then I got sleeeeeeeeepy. And yet I still managed to have a wine cooler in my hand. Yes, I'm always exhausted the day after the party, but it's always 100% worth it. The countdown is on --- only 363 more days until the next one!

Planning for Good Times

Whew. Where does the time go? I’ve been asking myself that for the past few weeks now, maybe because it’s gotten nicer outside and I’m spending more time laying out on the deck with a book or magazine. Or maybe because I’ve taken on more projects at work. Or maybe because I have a great (for the most part) group of coworkers who I actually want to do things with nowadays. Thursday happy hours are becoming a ritual!

Speaking of things to do with coworkers, I got it in my head last week that I want to plan a tubing trip. Sounded simple in the beginning, but it’s more work than I thought! Working with multiple schedules (between my coworkers and Buppy’s), the distance for everyone to drive, fees, after-party destination, alcohol in the tubes (which most places don’t allow in MD) . . . it’s a lot to coordinate. Oh yeah, let’s not leave out trying to work with Mother Nature, too. One of our friends volunteered his apartment as our party spot because he lives right by a river, but it’s been so dry here, the water level is too low to tube in that area. Bummer. I have a back up in mind though, which is the place I was originally shooting for. My only concern now: my coworker’s husband said the Gunpowder River (where we’d be going) is ‘snakey’. Not ‘snakey’ as in ‘windy’, but ‘snakey’ as in ‘lots of snakes’. I hope he was kidding. Or lying. Or just has no clue what he’s talking about. Well, whatever the case, I’m going to find out this weekend. Several of us are planning to head there, although this trial run might ultimately end up just being Buppy and I. I want to see if it’s a fun spot so we can plan a trip where the majority of us can make it in July or August. The river is running low and slow and float time is at it’s max, so I’m sure we’ll have fun regardless of how many or few of us there are.

On that note, I can’t believe it’s already almost the 2^nd weekend in June. Our annual Slip ‘n Slide / Crab Feast is less than a month away, and we really need to make the FB invite and get it out. Last year I saved money from every paycheck to use for the party, but that didn’t work from Jan. through mid-April this year since I was unemployed. Lucky for me, my current paychecks allow me to put away plenty, so I’ll still have at least as much as I had last year. Not to say that I hope we spend it all because we’re hoping to get a better deal on the crabs, but since we’re expecting more people, we might have to get an extra half bushel. I’m almost giddy with excitement that I get to plan a menu of mostly appetizers; should I be a snob and call them hors d’oeuvres? Ha --- only at work! We’ve decided to go with the tried and true grilled burgers / hot dogs / sausages for the main stuff; the fajitas last year just weren’t a hit. Oh yeah, if anyone out there has a stellar app recipe that holds up well in the heat, shoot it my way and I’ll happily give it a try. I’m psyched!

The countdown is on!

Only 3 days until it's party time, oh happy day! Today after work I plan to hit up a few stores [grocery + the produce market] to get everything I can think of that we need at this point for our party on Saturday. Luckily, a lot of the big-ticket items [meats especially] are things we already have on hand, so while the list is somewhat long, the bill shouldn’t be too ridiculous. I hope.

Below is a list of what we plan to make, which doesn’t include anything our guests are bringing to share. Sound tasty to you? It’s sure makin' me hungry, but that’s probably because it’s after 3pm and I have yet to eat anything today. Why do I do this to myself!?!

Chicken & steak fajitas
Hot dogs
Turkey Italian sausages
Steamed blue crabs
Pico de gallo
Bacon-cheddar dip
Ham-cream cheese-homemade dill pickle roll-ups
Pistachio fruit salad

I’m glad my friend and her family are coming up on Friday, which will allow us more help in prepping the night before and morning of. Good times will be had by all, I promise!