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Napa Weekend: Story #1

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Categories: General, Tags: , ,

Our first night in Napa for Kristen’s 30th birthday, Adam busted out the bottles of wine. By the time we’d (7 of us) drunk 6 bottles, people actually started arriving.

At this point, I was very, very drunk and Erica pointed out that we didn’t have a bed yet. So I busted out the brand new inflatable queen that my mom purchased that very day and we started to blow it up. We sat and waited. And looked at pictures of Erica’s crush on her IPhone. And waited. It wasn’t working. I attempted to read the directions. Mind you, I was drunk, but I think the lighting was bad too because it was hard to read–all blurry and things kept moving around….OK, I was just drunk. After re-reading the the 1 sided, 1 page of directions multiple times I finally figured out that you needed to charge the motor for 24 hours in advance of using it; not just plug and blow. I relayed this information to Erica. She was frankly disbelieving. I read the directions a couple more times to discover that you could use the lighter volt thing in a car for a measly minute and it would be inflated.

We carried the mattress to the car. DRUNK. Plugged it in and it was loud. So loud. But 60 seconds later we had something much more unwieldy to carry back inside. So giddy at this point I barely managed to make it in the front door before dropping the back end and falling on the bed.

“It’s so firm!” I wheezed out between giggles.

Kristen came tearing around the corner and yelled triumphantly, “That’s what she said!”

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September

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On this last day of September I was looking back at my book journal (where I keep track of my obsessive hobby) and thought I would share. Sept is a big book month what with the 4 day San Francisco Public Library Big Book Sale on the last weekend. There was also a smaller Pleasant Hill Library book sale at the beginning of the month. Plus many new books by beloved authors came out this month…well, as you will see it was busy.

Stats:

Books Read: 48

Books Bought: 30 (3 gifts, 3 returned)

Books from Library: 17

Books Given: 1

Money spent (approximately): $75 ($20 back from books returned)

Favorite Book: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Other Worthies: Dreamfever by Karen Moning, Grimspace by Ann Aguirre, The Five Sisters by Margaret Mahy, Start me Up by Victoria Dahl, The Fire Cat by Esther Averill, Everyone Else’s Girl by Megan Crane, and Hounds of Rowan: The Tapestry by Henry H. Neff.

Least Favorite Book was a toss up between: Improper English by Katie MacAllister, Blue Diablo by Ann Aguirre, Meridian by Amber Kizer, Someone to Love by Kasey Michaels, or The Runaway Duke by Julie Anne Long.

Books remaining on To-Be-Read-Shelf: 19

Number of Boxes of Books for Sale: 5 (Sigh. Powell’s anyone?)

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Not my tattoo, but it could be.

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Sloshing Around Drunk

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Categories: General, Tags: , , ,

This weekend was the first official British Garden Party held at Pleasant Hill Park. In direct conflict with our own sovereign nation, another group had reserved the picnic area to our southeast in the name of France.

Kris: Let’s attack them!

Gene: With what. Our disturbingly bright petit-fours?

Me: Capture their flag!

Kris: And we don’t even have a flag! We will so win this Battle of Gregory!

After a determined, and sneaky, flag battle–so subtle it was like it never even happened–more people arrived and the real drinking began.

I’ve never gotten drunk in a public park in the daytime before. Let me tell you, it’s a little embarrassing. Also the post-park heat exhaustion headache and continued drunkeness for like 3 hours after I got home was a trifle ridiculous. What can you do though? Some days you just have to be British. Even in 95 degree weather.

There were two home-made drinks. One, made by Adam, was full of rum and fruit juices.

Me: So, what do you call it?

Adam: ……tea?

Me: (frowns)

Kris: …. (she’s not actually paying attention yet)

Me: Maybe like Long Island Iced Tea?

Kris: Norfolk. Surrey. Warwickshire. Avon-upon-Stratford. Aquitaine.

Me: What? That’s in France.

Kris: It was in England ONCE.

Me: Maybe Southhampton. Or Shropshire.

Kris: Something with Wold in it. Like Toad.

End result: Toad-in-the-Wold Iced Tea. Toad in the Tea for short.

The other drink, made by me, was full of gin, triple sec, mango wine, flat lemon-flavored seltzer water, and 3 cucumbers. It never got a name during the course of the party. I have now come up with Gin Coquette. Because: 1: We played Croquet but sometimes Gene calls it Croquette. And 2. It is a coquettish beast of a drink. All light and tart on the tongue and then punches you in the face 15 minutes later with fizzy pockets of drunk coursing through your veins.

We played bocce ball and croquet, sat around drinking, eating, and chatting desultorily with British mannerisms (once I stuck my pinky out while drinking from my plastic cup. No, really.) And I had a lovely time. You can see pictures here: British Garden Party.

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