#3: 2006

Jeff Jonas changed our lives. Indirectly, he's the reason Don has a job at IBM. He is the mind behind the software that IBM bought, blah, blah, blah. More interesting than that, New Years Eve 2005/2006 Jeff Jonas threw a party that influenced everything our parties were to become. Now, I would never for a second compare our little events to the extravaganza that was his New Years party. But, there were elements that made us ponder and dream and say, "Hey, we could do that!" There was lighting, music, and dancing- in his living room! Hmmm... The seed for Bowsherstock was planted.

Party prep this year included laminate flooring in the main living room. Also, Dave and a very pregnant Lisa helped us paint the living room alcove red. I loved that space. We took a break from party prep so that Daylen could be born on June 23rd. He was our most popular party guest that year, by far. And, to take a page from Jonas' book, we added lighting.

A side story: I think this must have been the year that we moved Katie's china cabinet to Christine's second story apartment. Now, that's a fun story. Mike, Dave, and Don (anyone else?) trying to get that thing cornered up those steep stairs and realizing at the top that they couldn't actually get it through the door. Easy fix as long as you have the right tools... Christine and I knocked on doors throughout the complex looking for someone to let us borrow a screw driver. We eventually found a kind hearted neighbor (did he hit on us?) and the furniture was dismantled and taken up the stairs again. I was so afraid that that china cabinet was going to topple over the stairs or someone was going to fall. That was a scary move!

Evening #1 was our very first Piano Bar. Cole and Don played keys with Dave on sax. Mary and I wore matching tank tops and jean skirts to cocktail in support of our guys. We served martinis throughout the evening, fulfilling my cocktail waitressing dreams. I know we made key lime pie martinis. Did we make bananas foster and orange creamsicle, too? Debbie and Dottie took advantage of the open mic, and Don introduced everyone to the piano bar version of Joy to the World (Josh and Susana were his guinea pig couple). He tested the waters with You've Lost that Loving Feeling. (Gabe "sang" to Barb from my job at the bank.) Laura seemed to get antsy and entertained herself in the family room with her own musical sing along. There was dancing in the kitchen and who knows what else. The margarita machine was up and running all weekend, too.

We were up bright and early in the morning for swim time. There was a particular family that descended upon us far too early in the day. None of the kids had really been swimming before, so it was time to learn in our pool. Lucky us. After about an hour of swimming lessons with Dad, he deemed that they were ready to be alone in the pool. He didn't tell anyone else that. Don was in the kitchen making Spinach Artichoke Dip when he noticed the kids in the pool with no adult in sight. You've never seen a man move so fast with a pot of spinach in his hand... Let's just say, that was strike one for this crew.

He couldn't stay involved in that for long, because there was a quick lighting turn around to get ready for dance night. The plan was for the evening to begin with family dance time ala Chicken Dance and Electric Slide and move into Diva Des' Dance Party. It sort of happened that way, although quite awkwardly. I guess we thought that youngins and other family would lose interest once we moved on to the dance songs of the day. Not so much. There was Lacey still dancing and all sorts of people just sitting on the side watching us bump and grind. On a side note, dance nights have never quite fulfilled our expectations. They ended up being much harder to pull off than expected. But, I boogied my butt off anyway.

Day #3 began with more swimming and more of that family. Oh, and we borrowed Debbie's chocolate fountain for the first time. Great idea... until said children got into it and rubbed their chocolate covered bodies all over the kitchen walls and dining room chairs. Kids are awesome. When we were finally free, all of the adults in the house ran around celebrating until the family came back to gather some forgotten item. Oops. That was awkward. This may have been the year that Don, Cole, Dave and Mary were roughhousing around the pool. It was either this year or the next. Whenever it was, Don pushed Mary in and either she hit her head or she fainted. Not really sure, but whatever happened she lost consciousness and began floating lifelessly. Don pulled her out of the water and prepared to begin CPR. (Yes? I was in the house...) She came to, and we decided it was time to get CPR certified. This was also the year that Cole began his experimenting with mixology. He created Frankenshots from our liquor cabinet. One of my very favorite pictures is of a shirtless Cole serving Antonio from a tray of shots. He sure beat Mary and me. We closed out the day playing games (Scattergories) around the table and taking in fireworks in the front yard. Happy 4th of July!

Notable side story: Josh Zehner came over pretty late on the 4th, But when he did get there, he let us know about his audition with Cirque and subsequent offer to write and tour Kooza.

This may or may not have been the year that we set off the smoke detectors and the fire department came. Or maybe it was the next year...

In attendance in 2006 (or least in my pictures): Dave, Lisa, Lacey, & baby Daylen; Laura & Doreen; Debbie, Dottie, Roger, Aaron, Gabe, Darnell, Jacob & Brigitte; Mom & Dad; Cole, Mary, Joanna, Ruth, Frank, Steve & Terri; Barb & Michael Barrett (and their neighbors); Josh & Susana Murrietta; Carleen (from my bank days RIP); Bill & Wesley Bott (from my bank days); Christine; Sharon & Taree; Debbie, Gary, Katie, Will, Alicia (she was his new girlfriend at the time); Crystal & Janell; The Desrochers Family; Dominic & Jennifer (just before their wedding); Jessica & Jocelyn; Louie & Ashley (just before their wedding, too); Teline (Second City); Josh & Natalie; Bob Laporte (Teresa, too?); Chad Deal (Liberty High School); Jane & Antonio; Mark & Tommy (boyfriend just before Joey); Kathleen (IBM); Mike & Jennifer with the baby twins, Brooke & Sarah; Lots of babies this year: Ava came in September.

#2: 2005

Party #2 seems to be the best documented of them all. There are lots of pictures, Don and I both wrote separate blogs about it, there are flyers and schedules floating around. This one will be easier to piece together than most.

http://captaind.blogspot.com/2005/07/party-wrap-up.html

http://goddessdesiree.blogspot.com/2005_07_01_archive.html (There are three or four posts on mine. You just have to scroll down a bit to see them. Many of them are pictures.)

This year's party prep home improvement project was repainting the kool deck around the pool. Don acid washed and painted the entire deck. Lisa, did you help with this? We kept thanking you for help, but I don't recall exactly what we had you do. Shortly before this, we had put in the laminate floor in the family room. What a fortuitous decision considering how trashed the floors would get in years to come. Carpet would have been ruined for sure. We bought a new grill that my dad helped transport. We had planned to heat the pool, since the Pelican Beach pool had horrible sun exposure and never got warm enough. The pool heater went out the morning the party began. Miraculously, we got a repairman to come out that day, but to no avail. There was no warm pool or spa until after the party ended. This did not stop people from swimming, especially not Don and Katie playing King of the Raft at 1am.

During the first party, I'm not sure we were trying to create a tradition. I think we had so much fun that year that we couldn't pass up keeping it going. #2 is when we started the schedules of events and planned activities. Some took off and some didn't. Anyone remember the whitest legs competition, Jimmy Buffet happy hour, or Broadway Brunch? Yeah, I didn't think so. They were planned, but they didn't really happen: a) no one shows up in the morning no matter what we plan b) it's really hard to get people to stop talking and doing other things long enough to do "camp" activities. There are exceptions. Those will be covered in other posts.

A few notable traditions were born this year. Duh, every fun party has to have a craft, so there was shot glass painting. We decorated drink cozies, too. That tradition didn't stick quite as long as alcoholic glass painting. The margarita machine debuted this year, as well. This was the answer to the problem of being stuck behind a blender all party long. Plus, the machine margaritas aren't watered down, so they taste much better. My dad went in half on it with us, so he is part owner. I think he's used it once. Thanks, Dad. And, thanks to my Uncle Steve for the inspiration (he has his own, too). The lessons learned this year about margaritas: when it's hot people guzzle them down, people really like margaritas in general, thus, you must stay ahead of the demand by having mix prepped and cool. Otherwise, the machine can't get them frozen fast enough. We also started asking people to bring their own food to grill. We were afraid that we couldn't keep up with three days of people coming and going.

Our philosophy on the guest list has swung a lot over the years. Some years we keep it small; some years we don't. #2 began our phase of inviting anyone who had a pulse. We had very few boundaries. Over time, this philosophy became stressful because we were so torn in our attention. It was exhausting. But, some of our funniest stories have come out of experiences with the random people who showed up. In 2005, Don was playing regularly with The Second City and we were still leading music at 5pm Sunday Mass at CTK. It wasn't the greatest mix ever, but the backyard hymn off between the church musicians and comedians was pretty classic. The church musicians weren't really amused, but the Second City guys rocked the old Catholic standards. Speaking of... we amped up the jam night. There were Beatle songs, Leaving on a Jet Plane, Duke protesting the Devil Music with his homemade sign, and no jam would be complete without... If Today? Really? Yes, the super cool jam was interrupted by a few church classics. Don's dad jammed on guitar. Bob Calizo was on bass. Tony Latina on drums (Laura's e-drums to be specific). Don on keys. Debbie, Christine, JJ and me on vocals. One of the amps was too loud too close to the wall and the rocking vibrations of Back in the USSR made a wine glass leap off the shelf in the family room to its death on the new laminate floor. Carpet would have saved that one. Oh well.

Back to anyone with a pulse; we were naive church people. We invited our sound guy at the time. We didn't know much about him, but he seemed like a nice guy. And, he is a nice guy. But, we never noticed his "pink cape" as our Second City friends called it. Within minutes, they were honing in on the poor guy. Well, he honed in on a lot of booze and revealed his pink cape. Don was mercilessly hit on for the rest of the evening. "You're sooooooo handsome" was accompanied by lots of attempts at affectionate touching. Don was saved by Jessica jumping in his lap to create a barrier. I just stood back and watched. Yes, I left him to the wolves. People sobered up. All was well. Who knows what was remembered in the end? But, we remember...

Notable life events from party #2: Louie and Ashley had been vacationing in Laguna. They came over right after getting home so they could share news of their engagement. Such a fun surprise.

So, here are all the people with a pulse: The Millers visiting from Indiana, Lisa and Lacey (no Dave this year. I suppose he didn't want to build more furniture.), Laura, Doreen, Dameon (and his friend Kevin), Debbie (Mom); Don Sr and Step Debbie; Grandma Fran; Aunt Dottie & Uncle Roger; Summer, Darnell, Aaron, & Gabe; My mom, dad, and Anthony; a random lady from my dad's work that he didn't even like; Debbie, Gary, & Katie; Jessica and Jocelyn; Tony, Siri, and baby Tony; Duke and Joanne; Christine Kellar; Bob Calizo and one of his women; Fr. Bill and Fr. Lawrence (visiting from England); Eric and Michelle Vogan and their baby (Group1/IBM people that no one really ever saw again); Mark and Dean (boyfriend at the time); Michael Harnett and wife (I'm blanking... ); Josh; Tom Farnan; Homer Marrs; Louie, Ashley, Janet, & Lou Latina (RIP); JJ Fusch; Rob; Lisa McNaughton; Barb (from my job at the bank) & Michael with her granddaughter and friends; Mary, Cole, & Joanna; Sharon, Paul, & Taree;

#1: 2004

The 4th was on a Sunday, but I don't remember what day we actually began. Was it Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Saturday, Sunday, Monday? I recall that we had a loose idea of a schedule beginning in the morning each day. We spent a lot of time swimming, eating, drinking, being musical, and trying to watch a movie.

Especially in the early days, we used the party as the kick in the pants to get home improvement projects done. It gave us a deadline. Otherwise, we just wouldn't have been motivated to do anything! We moved into the Pelican Beach house in January of 2004, so we were, essentially, still moving in. I believe our dining room table (the one we currently have) arrived a few weeks earlier. The Pelican Beach house did not have a good TV spot other than over the fireplace. These days, flat screen TVs are commonplace. Not in 2004. This was our golden opportunity to be early adopters and spend far too much money on our first flatscreen. The night before the party began, Don stayed up into the wee hours mounting the coveted TV on the wall. It wouldn't have been so late if we hadn't bought, assembled, and returned a DIY TV stand and bought and assembled its replacement all in the same evening. RC Wiley didn't like us much that evening. Doreen and I hung new pictures on the walls while Don and Dave worked on the furniture. Eventually we all went to bed and began the next day as walking dead. But the house looked great!

The first evening, musicians jammed in the front room while the rest of us got drunk in the kitchen between songs. Tequila and Blue Island Pucker shots around. This is the night that Debbie Hasterok added a new Tequila story to her lore. Cuervo was not kind. On the way home, Gary was driving and Debbie couldn't take it: she puked all over the car. (Is this exaggerated, or is that what really happened? Help!) Anyway, she was violently ill. Laura and JJ Fusch didn't fare much better with Cuervo over the weekend. Although, there are some classic blackmail photos. At one point JJ passed out at our house for the night and slipped out the front door early in morning. She groggily said, "I'll be back..." We didn't see her for another year. We drank a lot that year. Don practically wore out our blender making margaritas. He could not keep up with the demand. I vaguely remember there being an issue with the toilet backing up. My dad saved the day by bringing over a plunger. We didn't have one. As I recall, he and Doreen worked through the plumbing mess together.

Our next musical night, we gathered around the piano and sang musical theater songs. On one of the mornings, we attempted to watch Jesus Christ Superstar. I remember Christine and me sitting on folding chairs trying to be awake. We had this new TV, so we had to watch a movie- no matter how tired we all were! We were amazed by the new technology until the TV kept restarting every time there was a bright flash of light on screen. The irony was that during the scene when Jesus throws a TV, the TV didn't restart. Ha! Ha! Glad we spent 2k on that...  But, no one else we knew had one. So there. I honestly don't remember why The Godfather got bumped.

Lisa, is this the year that the bottle of Blue Curacao busted on the driveway?

Janell's cousin from Australia was visiting. He and Andy pouted in the backyard, dissing America while we celebrated the 4th.

With the aid of pictures, here's who came through that inaugural year: Lisa, Dave, and baby Lacey; Laura & Doreen, Debbie (Mom) and John; Aunt Dottie & Uncle Roger; Anthony; My dad (my mom was in Utah); Tony and Siri (pregnant with Little Tony), Duke & Joanne; Sean Weigand with his wife Robin and daughter Olivia; Debbie, Gary, & Katie; Christine Kellar; Winston Murray; Dottie & JJ Fusch; Brad Torchin & Julie (Don and Tony were in a Fleetwood Mack cover band with them around that time); Jane & Antonio; Barb and Michael (I worked with Barb at Washington Federal Savings); Lisa & Andy; Crystal & Janell; Jessica, Jason, and baby Jocelyn; Dave Sankuer (he brought Dance, Dance Revolution, but we never played); last, but not least, Molly (Dobby joined our family a few weeks later.)

Memories of the 4th of July: In the Beginning

Once upon a time... Isn't that how all good stories begin? It may be hard to believe, but Don and I have not always thrown 4th of July parties. Honestly, we love America as much as the next guy, but we aren't super patriots. So, our tradition didn't even come out of a great love for the holiday. Sorry, America. Here's how it really happened: Our niece, Lacey Bachart was born November 23rd, 2003. She was baptized in Las Vegas at Christ the King in January of 2004. All the family gathered to celebrate the beginning of the new generation. Don's family is Irish-Italian and his Nana, Jean DelliBovi, was quite proud of the Italian roots. During family dinner at Chapalas, Nana was quite disturbed to find that multiple family members had not seen all of The Godfather movies- the Italian family primer. To remedy this problem, it was decided that the next three day weekend the family was to gather to watch The Godfather trilogy. It was determined that the next feasible three day weekend all could commit to was 4th of July weekend. 4th of July weekend 2004 was to be a three day family gathering for the express purpose of watching The Godfather. And, thus, a tradition was born. 13 years in, and we have yet to show The Godfather.

It pains me to admit this, but I'm starting to have trouble separating the years and all the memories. I want to catalog all the life and milestones that have happened over our parties. The engagements, the babies, the people who are no longer with us, the crazy drunk stories, the fights even! But, we need your help, especially with the first years. I'll be writing posts for each year and would love for you to fill in the gaps with your comments. Then, someday, I'd like to put all this together in a more cohesive history. I guess that's my grandpa's historian tendency coming out in me.