Silly things adults do

We're attending a pirate themed party today at the home of very close friends....we hate it. They have this party every year where the men, mateys, prepare a themed food for the grill, this year it's any kind of meat, sea or land, and the women, wenches, prepare sides. The food is to be prepared as small portions so everyone gets a bite then at the end of feasting everyone votes on their favorite and the winner receives really tacky pirate stuff...someone please save me! Here's my offering. Pork tenderloin roll ups with a stuffing of Amish grown golden apple, onion, garlic, spinich, mushroom, gouda cheese and secret seasonings smoked on the Big Green Egg.

Arghh, looks to be a mighty fine plate of victuals matey!

Polly wants a pork tenderloin rollup...

Beautiful finished tenderloins. How did they go over? I love the table you have for your green egg. Looks much safer than the ones I have seen that are free standing.
I'm with you, I detest themed parties, that you have to dress in the theme. I never go.

The other silly things adults do is dress up their pets. When I had my certified pet therapy dog and was visiting hospitals and other facilities with him, we were occasionally asked to dress our pets up. I usually just put a colored bandanna around his neck and called it good. Once we were doing a fund raiser for our local humane society and the president of our group wanted everyone to dress up their dog in some sort of story theme. Pinocchio, Alice in Wonderland, that type of thing. Ugh. My dog was way to smart to go along with anything like that, so again, I did fancy collar made of jewels. I was called on it by a busy body lady, and told her my dog could not possibly be made any cuter than he already was. Besides, I had trained him to dance with me to music and do many tricks and the clothes just got in his way. I felt the entertainment we gave the patients and residents in assisted living facilities outweighed a silly costume on my beautiful little friend.

[Jenise]

Your tenderloins sure look great, but I feel for you on the pirate theme. We've done exactly one pirate party, the theme of which we conveniently pretended to mis-understand. So we went as pie-raters, complete with white clinical coats, notepads and clear plastic pie servers around our necks. I was surprised how many people we had to explain this to. But at least it didn't require any fake teeth or bad makeup.

Beautiful finished tenderloins. How did they go over? I love the table you have for your green egg. Looks much safer than the ones I have seen that are free standing.
I'm with you, I detest themed parties, that you have to dress in the theme. I never go.

We're off to the party in a half hour so I'll post tomorrow how well they were received. One of the rules is that you can pre cook your grub and it only has to touch the grill to be an official entry. So i'll touch then warm then serve. Don't have to dress up, thank God.
Had the table made in Ga and shipped up for $200...what a steal. The wood is cypress.

The only theme parties I attend are either wine or food themes. Everyone bring a Spanish dish, sure, could be interesting.

Dress up as pirates....I think we are busy that day (week, year).

Have been dragged to the odd Hallowe'en party (politics mandated an appearance at a couple of them) but refused to get dressed up other than in my kilt, which is acceptable formal wear in any case.

We once attended (against my better judgement) a murder mystery-themed dinner party, an event that was equal parts boredom and discomfort, but which was saved by the bottle of '78 Chateau Montelena that another guest unexpectedly showed up with.

Mark Lipton

Mark, if I knew a 78 Montelena was going to turn up, I might consider attending as well (even though I loathe that sort of 'let's-make-some-excuse-to-drink' or maybe 'we-need-some-excuse-to-get-together' party. At least long enough to pour a decent draught of that wine and then I might find myself overcome and unable to continue!

I once had a woman try to get me attend a 'dress as your favourite historical figure' party. She was very persistent. I tend not to lie when I decline an invitation but I also try not to offend unnecessarily, but that woman made it very difficult. In the face of here incessant nagging ('Why can't you come? Why? Why?.....") I think I finally said something impolite along the lines of telling her how totally inane I thought the whole idea was and that I'd rather stay at home and pick lint off my sweaters than attend. I think she may have even tried after that ("Are you sure....")

Why is there a positive correlation between the degree of inanity of the theme and the determination of the host to have you attend?

[Jenise]

Drew has yet to report back. Maybe they sank his boat?

Bill--like you, I'm not a fan of costume parties. But we did go to one that I loved, once, here in the neighborhood, at a home that has all the living/party space upstairs with tons of windows and a wrap-around deck looking down on the street. The theme was Fabulous Pairs. So Bob and I bought black and white stripe t-shirts, to wear with black jeans we each already owned, on which we painted with red paint and stencils BBV Prisoner No. 001 and BBV Prisoner No. 002, and had ourselves delivered to said party about 30 minutes after all the others would have arrived--handcuffed--in the flatbed of the Security pickup truck, complete with sirens and flashing red and blue lights, which drove right onto the lawn in full view of all. Fun!

The theme was Fabulous Pairs.

Family site. Must......not.....respond........

[Jenise]

Incorrigible.

Mark, if I knew a 78 Montelena was going to turn up, I might consider attending as well (even though I loathe that sort of 'let's-make-some-excuse-to-drink' or maybe 'we-need-some-excuse-to-get-together' party. At least long enough to pour a decent draught of that wine and then I might find myself overcome and unable to continue!

I once had a woman try to get me attend a 'dress as your favourite historical figure' party. She was very persistent. I tend not to lie when I decline an invitation but I also try not to offend unnecessarily, but that woman made it very difficult. In the face of here incessant nagging ('Why can't you come? Why? Why?.....") I think I finally said something impolite along the lines of telling her how totally inane I thought the whole idea was and that I'd rather stay at home and pick lint off my sweaters than attend. I think she may have even tried after that ("Are you sure....")

Why is there a positive correlation between the degree of inanity of the theme and the determination of the host to have you attend?

Bill, that theme I could handle: I'd put on khakis and a white shirt and say I came dressed as Teddy Roosevelt, my "favorite historical figure" (in actuality, my biggest problem with that theme is how alien the concept of having a favorite historical figure is to me). Agreed about the '78 Montelena, too. I'd opened my only bottle of it back in '87 in a very good cause: celebrating the birthday of my future wife; it was a treat to get to try it again in ca. 1998 but it convinced me that many of those classic Cal Cabs really don't develop much in the way of tertiary aromas, at least not on a time scale compatible with my life span.

Mark Lipton

Sorry I didn't get back right away....really busy week! I won the prize for "Best originality in Grub" What an honor! There were three prizes. Best taste, which was one by the son of the host for his rosemary skewered marinated grilled rib eye chunk with a small round golden potato...was one of the best hunk of steaks I've ever had. Best presentation was the third prize won by a guy for his presentation of his sliced meat loaf, which was very good. It was a good time although it rained the entire party but the host set up multiple gazeebo style tents that kept everyone dry while outside. Here's a picture of my prize.....A pirate skull snow globe.................now where to display it?????

[Jenise]

A pirate skull snow globe.................now where to display it?????

At the Good Will?

But congratulations on winning a prize with your food! Looked well-deserved from here.