Monday, January 21, 2008

The Day After The Day After







Oh my, whatta weekend. A very lively little party, with new friends and old. Now they have all gone home, MyLarry has scuttled off to Vegas with yet another Mighty Load of Steel, the house is mostly clean and I am mostly sober. Have to work on that. The snow is falling, another six inches on top of all which fell previously. I blame Canada.

Lady D flew into Salt Lake City on Friday morning, Genius and I drove down to pick her up. Genius had a little time to kill before work, so we swung into downtown SLC to check out Temple Square. We parked behind the new Conference Building, marveled at the power of a church which can purchase a block of Main Street and close if off for a private park and reflecting pool for the Temple. Checked out the visitors' center withe the lovely Christus in front of the swirling space murals, peeked in the Tabernacle at the famous organ, and headed over to the old Hotel Utah to ride up to the observatories to check out the views. An nice older gentleman showed us around, he seemed disappointed that we weren't active members of the church. In fact, Genius and I are Ex-Mos and according to the doctrine of the church, we're straight to heck. But the original crystal chandeliers in the ex-hotel were nice! Yes, the church bought the old Hotel Utah and turned it into the Joseph Smith Building, home of offices, the Family Research Center (geneaology), and gift shops and cafes. There will be a bridal show there today, complete with modest wedding gowns suitable for temple weddings.

Stopped in the Navoo Cafe; I had Coca-cola porkloin on a toasted wheat roll with cranberry-orange relish. Amazingly good meal. Mormons may be plain home-cookers, but it is tasty and filling food.

Ah, the party. The pecan pie was fabulous, so good I hid a piece and had it for breakfast this morning. The secret was a few tablespoons of robust dark molasses and a teaspoon of rum extract in the pie filling. The cake came out heavy, very tasty with a coconut-pecan frosting, but more like a brownie in texture than cake. I think the almond milk is the culprit, no milk protiens to give the batter loft. It will take me a month to eat the leftovers! There's ice cream and fruit pies and jalepeno poppers and chips and tomatillo green salsa and cheeses and veggies and fruit and nuts and Malibu rum-filled chocolates and orange juice and champagne. Really, really cheap champagne. And 29 cans out of a 30 can block of Coors Light 3.2 beer. We need a skeet launcher for those. Pull!

Seven Deadly Sins was fun, but we played the express sinners version and skipped the trivia questions, went straight for the sins. I was laughing so hard I couldn't do some of them. I was supposed to be the Mirror from Snow White and tell each person what I thought of them. Oh no! The sin that everyone could earn a token was to spank yourself and tell yourself what a dirty pig you were. That was sight! I thought I was going to hyperventilate.

White elephants was hilarious, one person brought a "date with yourself" box. Too funny. The calving glove is beyond words. There was a blown-glass rooster, a glass cock! Children's books, a Sugar Plum Fairy ornament (a man in tights and a tutu), a welder's helmet liner, ceramic figurines of pioneer girls spinning (scary), and I got a bottle of Boone's Farm Blue Hawaiian "wine." That's really scary! And a decorated Christmas paint can, now I can has bukkit!

Oh, The Trip with Peter Fonda was on in the background. How perfectly horrible! We mocked it endlessly when we weren't distracted with conversation and boozing.

The haul: a Nun-Chuck, which is a spring-loaded launcher for tiny plastic nuns, from William. He always chooses spot on gifts! Genius had been on an aerial photography run with a patron, he took a fabulous picture from the back of Mt. Ogden. You can almost see my house in the print. Poster size and framed, it will hang in the stairwell. I got several bad old horror movies, suitable for Bad Movie Night. We did watch Sweeney Todd, the original 1936 version. So frightening to think of the mind which saw that film and thought, hey! That would make a wonderful musical! Let's see, I also have a receipt for Seasons Three and Four of Farscape. Yay! And I got a copy of Family Guy's Blue Harvest on DVD plus the T-short which goes with it. So pleased! But the time with friends was the best, we're scattered and do not get together often enough.

Sunday the boys took Lady D down to the airport after a tasty breakfast of mimosas, bacon and croissants, veggie sausage for her. Me and MyLarry and Genius went to the burn meeting at Brewvies in SLC (Brew+ movies, you can sit in the front and eat and drink and shoot pool or order food and beer and the theater has trays). Very good to see old friends there. I'm a community adviser now, Genius is now a board member, and Larry is, well, he's Larry. Smoky Mike is coordinating fire and other dangerous art, we will be on his fire safety team as fuel masters again. Way cool. Don't care for all the changes, but won't pass judgment until after the event and I've seen how things play out. There's a lot of heart and effort going into this year.

Dropped by the boys' place, nice little duplex, but the house they're buying is on the same secluded cul-de-sac, darling tiny Victorian with a lot of potential. Moving party in February!

All in all, very fun, very satisfying, and now I'm even more hopped up for Burning Man than ever!

The pictures: Still Snowing. The Haul, the long shiny black glove is the calving glove. The green frog was one of MyLarry's white elephants. Desi with her white elephants, her glove is a left-handed high voltage or physics glove. I sense a theme here. The Bar, post party. I think Genius took pictures of me, but the blackmail has not yet commenced.

Tomorrow: recipe for Zombie Punch. Mmmmmmm!

5 comments:

archersangel said...

So frightening to think of the mind which saw that film and thought, hey! That would make a wonderful musical!

i had a similar thought about dr. jekyll & mr. hyde

AntiM said...

They made a musical from Jekyll and Hyde? I have to see it!

Anonymous said...

WOW, looks like an enormously good time was had by all! The gift-buyers must've had great fun picking out everything and seeing everyone's reactions. And the games sound hysterical.

My dad is a major, major fan of pecan pie, so I'm going to pass along the molasses and rum recipe additions to my mom.

Boone's Farm Blue Hawaiian Wine does sound a little scary, but it does remind me of something funny. - Absinthe? With or without wormwood? *grins wickedly* - Nah, I know better, but even in its sans-wormwood state, that's always an impressive addition to a spirits collection.

Glad you had a fun birthday party. :)

AntiM said...

There's a reason my imported absinthe bottles are empty! hehehe. In reality though, absinthe tastes terrible!

Pecan pie, so yummy. Hope the tips are to her, and your dad's, liking.

Bake Me A Cake! said...

I totally agree with the fact that it is very difficult to find modest prom dresses. My sister just go married last month and we had the hardest time finding modest bridesmaid dresses!! Everything is sleeveless and tight! By the way, I am selling my dress (a modest ball gown) on Ebay if anyone is interested. It was a beautiful dress. It is Ebay ID #300204590891 Here is the direct link to the listing: http://cgi.ebay.com/Davids-Bridal-Persimmon-Dress-Bridesmaid-Prom-Modest_W0QQitemZ300204590891QQihZ020QQcategoryZ3262QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem