Who Had the Greatest (Pre)Birthday Party?

Well, of course, it was me! Yes, yes, I know that should be "I," but that sounds really stilted, don't you think?

Last night, I had hired the Kenseth Room and kitchen at the South Amherst Congregational Church. We had 22 people dining sumptuously with a champagne toast. I had made 26 baked potatoes, chicken thighs with pork rind dust, chicken thighs with Montreal seasoning, chicken breast with panko crumbs.

All of the guests brought something (literally) from soup to nuts, hors d'ouevres to side dishes and desserts. And, can you believe it? I did not take one picture. I am so mad at myself.

The table settings were lovely -- I borrowed Lisa's real champagne glasses and the church dishes are a lovely deep pink (I'm not sure if it's supposed to be red) and white in a pattern similar to the blue willow pattern.

And since inquiring minds want to know, here is what is in Montreal chicken seasoning:
Garlic, salt, onion, spices (including black pepper, parsley, and red pepper), orange peel, paprika, green bell peppers, and preservative. To be honest, I can't taste anything beyond where it says red pepper -- and I'm sure it's sweet red pepper because it's not hot.

Nancy very sweetly brought me a handful of lottery scratch tickets and I did not win anything. Ann brought me a primrose, happily in bloom. Deb brought some really nice cut flowers which included roses. I am ashamed to say I don't know who brought the pink cyclamen but I'll find out for sure tomorrow! I'm very happy that some people brought food for the Amherst Survival Center. Yaoyao brought a lovely vase of cut flowers with lace on the outside, which dressed it up even more.

Speaking of Yaoyao, I finally finished her quilt last week.

It's folded over at the top so you cannot see that it really is bound on all sides. The back is an all over blue gray with stars. This is hand quilted and tied. I varied the stitches and patterns. I hope it keeps her warm if she ever gets a chance to be on the couch watching TV.

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I have spent much of today dozing off and on. This party animal stayed until 9:30 p.m. Wow. I remember the days when I used to start partying then. That was a long time ago!

We even had fun in the kitchen before the official start time. We had to set the tables and I had to get the chicken cooking. That darn oven must be 100 degrees lower than it says because it took a LONG time for the chicken to cook -- we ate in stages. Luckily, I had baked the potatoes at my house. Anyway, Cyndi was enthralled with the fact that the two double sinks each had a long faucet that could be turned 180 degrees around. So you only needed two faucets instead of four! 

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It has been unseasonably warm here for the past couple of days == as in the 50's! Phyllis noted today that I have daffodils and possibly hyacinth coming up in the front (south facing). I sure hope they don't get winter killed if winter decides to continue with winter weather and snow.

And the snow is all gone. We had rain followed by warm temperatures. There are puddles everywhere. Only the mall has big snowbanks left from where the plow pushed the snow.

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While I read a lot on FaceBook, and some of my friends post news items from the NY Times and the Huffington Post, I am still trying to stay above the fray politically and I don't officially read a newspaper. 

I am horrified at most of what Trump says and I still cannot believe how disconnected and rambling Palin's endorsement speech of him was. But on the Democratic side, I think we need to have Hillary have Bernie Sander's child and have her run for President. I guess there is not enough time for that but we seem to need a balance between practical experience and grandiose goals. I think both Hillary and Bernie have good ideas and good intentions, but we need some compromise from both. At any rate, we need one of them to defeat the circus of other candidates.

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I have to take the trash and recycling out to the curb now. Last week I was mortified to have put out the wrong recycling bucket. It's glass and plastic one week and paper on the next week. I blame it on my across-the-street neighbors: they only have one bucket which is blue. Blue equals paper. They put out blue. It was a red bucket week. (In reality, I had looked up the recycling calendar online and I looked at the wrong date.)

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Just so you know: if you throw a chuck steak into a crock pot with wine, mushrooms, onions, left over roasted garlic and some basil, it's yummy! I've been working on this same bottle of wine for months now. If it hasn't turned to vinegar yet, I don't think it will. But I'm amazed. It must be those sulfites.

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So it's Monday and I'm finishing up my lunch hour at work with you. It's a gorgeous sunny day, to be followed tomorrow with sleet. I have permission to take the next two days off and I think I'll do a lot of quilting.  If I make quilt tops, I'll bring them to Jeanne Harlow to quilt. She has a long arm quilting machine and she has been doing some really amazing patterns. (She did a show and tell the last time we had lunch together.) 

Any quilt requests? 

Summer Time Bok Choi