#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;
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;
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