Friday, 31 July 09 (POKER & NOT POKER PARTY!)

Last Friday we introduced the Division House to a Burdick poker party. They got along smashingly!
Justin Taylor, Jay (III), David (Polly's dad), Chris & Tiff T were among the first to show. Following suit were:
Jay's friend: the owl-adorned Kelsey (who displayed amazing beginner's luck by winning everyone's money!)
Sarah J, Natividad, Chris D, Heather K and Brian, Christy & Aaron.

We feasted on red sangria, chips & salsa, bread & pesto (once again!), freezer-burnt meat-lover's costco pizza and a safeway frozen cheese pizza.
The non-poker players had a blast re-establishing their mad Super Mario Brothers skillz on the old-school Nintendo!

A ridiculously cute and nerdy cross-legged Dashboard Confessional sing-along ensued...

Thursday, 30 July 09 - The Alaskans!

Followed by a delicious Angel Thai dinner, The Alaskans came back to our place for some refreshing Sangria under the backyard umbrella!

Tuesday, 28 July 09 (NATIVIDAD'S SEEING OFF)

In consideration of a busy weekend of packing ahead, Natividad requested that her Seeing Off gathering take place on Tuesday evening. A delightful 3-hour happy hour resulted. In attendance were:

From Division Street Blog

Aaron & Christy, Tim, Adam & Annalisa, Vince, Kim & Tyler, Heather & Brian, Chris Duchaine, Ian & Julie, Sarah Jutte & Natividad!

From Division Street Blog

We listened to Rod Stewart on vinyl and attempted to stay cool, amid one air conditioner and 2 fans.

We feasted upon:

-Soft slices of baguette w/ Pesto (we really need an industrial strength food processor) & those cute little BabyBell triangles of spreadable cheese, served on our fancy Lenox tray (wedding gift from Grandma Pat)

-White wine sangria this time, featuring peaches & strawberries, and again falling drastically short of the necessary supply. For next time, I have learned that our friends really enjoy sangria, and that we can probably never have too much.

-Christy's delightful pitas & hummus;
-Julie's ridiculously amazing homemade 7-layer dip;
-Kim's delicious homemade guacamole (with tomatillos from her garden)

From Division Street Blog

At some point, it was discovered that it was finally cooler out back than it was in the house. We migrated that direction and sat out back, corralled by tiki torches.

From Division Street Blog

Bon Voyage, Natividad! We'll miss you!

Tuesday, 28 July 09 (NATIVIDAD'S SEEING OFF...a prequel)

A sort of streaming narration - let's see where this takes us:

It's roughly one million degrees outside. My office is reasonable today...yesterday I had to wear a sweater to fend off the air-conditioned chill, but today I merely sneezed a few times, fought a short battle with a sore throat, and powered through.

I went home at lunch time, after a hurried trip from one end of Tumwater Safeway to the other and back again for a few key items I would need for the evening: one three-way light bulb <150 watts, one package of live basil (roots intact) two french artisan-style baguettes, one 2-liter bottle of diet 7up, and a pack of 100 white napkins.

I opted to deal with parking in the garage on my break, so as to minimize the times I scorch my legs on the leather seats today.

So, I hauled the air conditioning monster from our bedroom onto the front porch, emptied its watery contents, and jimmy-rigged it back into operation in the dining area. It has been blasting cool air into the atmosphere ever since.

Let's hope the 6 & 1/2 hour head start it has on our guests will prove fruitful!

Friday, 24 July 09 (ROCK BAND & KEBABERY)

Friday Jay & Justin came over for a kebab feed. We didn't actually eat anything off a stick, but chickens & beefs were marinated overnight, skewered, and char broiled to perfection, along with potatoes, pineapple, mushrooms, peppers & delightful little pearl onions.

Pursuant to the previous week's Sarah Silverman Program marathon, Jay brought over a half-rack of TAB, a roll of necco wafers and a delicious chocolate cake (the latter 2 completely unrelated to the Sarah Silverman Program) to share. Matt, as was suspected, has since become a TAB addict.

After dinner, David showed up with a bag of Funjuns (which google recognizes as a legitimate word) and some Mike's hardER something-or-other, which I very much enjoyed. We employed his drum stool and our fancy new drums (wedding gift from Mr. Jay) and played our first Rock Band set at the new house.

Performances of note were: "Geraldine" by Glas Vegas, "Make Damn Sure" by Taking Back Sunday, that one Jimmy Eat Worls song, and a lot of other songs that I don't remember or know about because I am 100 years old and I went to bed at 11, missing the latter portion of the set. (Therefore, I don't have anything else to say about this night.)

Friday, 17 July 09 (WARMING OF THE HOUSE)

Last Friday we invited a bunch of amazing people we're lucky to call friends over to an official Housewarming Party.

Jay led the crowd, followed closely by Cheryl and her beautiful white mums & singing card. Further received were 2 Duchaine Brothers & one Christy Sawhill (who brought us an awesome book on living off the land and a delicious bottle of red wine), Tyler and Kim (who brought their own wine glasses and a bottle of very tasty orange muscat to share), Ian and Julie (who brought Toby and amazing strawberry upside down cake, and who I think are responsible for leaving the absolut citron & pomegranate juice we've been enjoying), Natividad (who offered her services as an on-site nanny for Toby), Sarah W, Chris T, Andrea, Jackie (who enjoyed the backyard swing almost as much as Jaxon did), our new neighbor Allison (who brought puckery granny smith cider), the Botanas, Justin Taylor, Sarah J & Kristen S, and the Wilkins Family (minus Polly).

3 batches of Sangria* were consumed, along with a big dish of Killer's Killer Artichoke-Spinach Dip** and Julie's strawberry cake***. We lit the tiki torches and played games around the fire, including the "I'm having a party and I'm bringing..." game.


*Sangria (one big batch): one huge jug of Carlo Rossi burgundy table wine, one 2-liter bottle of diet 7up, a healthy splunk each of triple sec and brandy, one sliced lemon, one sliced orange, refrigerated overnight. Add ingredients as needed to refresh a near-empty bowl.

**Dip: one can of artichoke hearts (in water - not marinated), about 2/3 bag of spinach (or a couple handfuls of fresh spinach), 1 brick of cream cheese, 1 tub of sour cream, one ball of mozzarella, 1/2 cup or so of shredded parmesan, a squirt of dijon mustard, 1 clove of garlic, onion flakes, garlic salt, sea salt & pepper to taste. Mix everything together in a big bowl. Bake covered at 400 for about 45 mins. Serve w/ warm french bread.

***Cake:
2 cups crushed fresh strawberries
1 (6 ounce) package strawberry flavored gelatin mix
3 cups miniature marshmallows
1 (18 ounce) package yellow cake mix, batter prepared as directed on package

-Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
-Spread crushed strawberries on the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking pan. Evenly sprinkle strawberries with the dry gelatin powder, and top with mini marshmallows.
-Prepare the cake mix as directed on the package, and pour on top of the marshmallows. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 40 to 50 minutes. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the pan to loosen the sides, and turn the cake out onto a serving tray. Store cake in the refrigerator.

Saturday, 4 July 09 (INDEPENDENCE DAY)

Having moved in over the weekend of June 26, we had to put a bit of pressure on ourselves to have the house "company-ready" for our summer kick-off and introduction to the Division House on July 4th. We decided to skip out on several invitations for Independence Day festivities, and keep our party small & sweet: family only.

We kind of forgot that the phrases "small" and "our family" don't really go hand-in-hand. In attendance were:
Mom & Dad, Mom & Phill, Grandma Marilyn, Cousin Kevin & Christina, Cody & Samantha, Debbie, Tracy & Michael, Emma, Ethan, Anna & Grace, Kandi & Jim and Jaxon.
Matt's dad presented us with a surprise gift: a nice new (big) grill to replace our somewhat pitiful by comparison hand-me-down one we had. Matt slaved over hot dogs & hamburgers, while the rest of us enjoyed potato salad, Tracy's corn casserole, a vast variety of chips and iced tea. Lunch was followed by Matt's delicious dessert creation that included a graham cracker crust, cool whip and a patriotic assortment of berries.The kids loved the house ~ Cody and Ethan relished in the opportunity to play xbox undisturbed while their sisters & cousins played outside. Jaxon enjoyed the swing so much he fell asleep on it. Grace hardly left the kiddie pool, while Anna & Samantha found new ways to get dirty and Emma chased them all around.
As the sun and the party wound down a bit, we were able to hear fireworks from all directions. Unfortunately, our view of the Valley's show was blocked by a few big trees, but our neighbors down the street put on quite a show. We roasted marshmallows over our new fire pit and had s'mores (with peanut butter!).

All in all, it was a really great way to introduce the house to the family, and kick off summer!