Every time I host a function I am almost always disappointed in the end. Chad and I have had many discussions about this over the past year. For some reason I have this nagging voice in my head that says ‘You must throw the most amazing party on the face of the plant and you must make new and amazing recipes and everything must be different all the time’. Now we all know what happens with you listen to the voices in your head that say this. It never comes true and you always become disappointed. I think I might have mentioned this in a post before.

Chads big thing when I organize a party is to just keep it simple and people will enjoy it. My big thing when organizing a party is to keep things interesting and different. Here in is where the problem lies.

When I think about the most successful dinner parties I have thrown and enjoyed the most, I think of the last minute dinners where people just show up and you decide to feed them so you grab the things in your fridge and make a bunch of simple recipies you know well and everyone loves. When I think about the not so successful dinner parties where I come away exhausted and disappointed, I think of the much planned out, over thought, new recipes galore that never turn out and no one eats, kind of dinner parties.

I think I have finally come to the realization that new and different isn’t always the best. It’s time to go back to the basics.

Anyways, my idea for this gather was just to have a bunch of people over in a casual manner while feasting on appetizers and bbq’d kebabs. What I didn’t realize until after is that it probably would have worked out better if we ACTUALLY had a patio and a place for people to hang out outside rather then a 4 foot deck with two chairs. My bad.

I had this brilliant idea that since Pat and Dario weren’t able to join us for the party we should do something special. I passed on my idea to Marlee and this is what was born…

PAT AND DARIO KEBABS!!!

It was like they were actually there…but a lot more silent…and with out all the “I am Cow hear me Moo” business…

Pat kept messaging us and calling on speaker phone because he wasn’t at the party and because Red Deer is a hole.

Dario was sad that he couldn’t eat any of Marlee’s amazing Spinach and Artichoke Dip.

He really does secretly miss his best Jew friend. Even if this pictures says otherwise.

Did you ever know that you’re my hero?

Teehee!!!

Deck Friends

HAHAHAHA!

Pat got a new hair style

What?

The best thing about Pat and Dario Kebabs is that we don’t have to listen to them recite Robin Williams and every other damn comedian they have memorized. And then the second we said that look what they started doing…
DAMMIT GUYS!!!

me:  if i wanted to insult you based on the fact that you are from New York what would i say?
mike.j.lazzaro:  …uh huh…marlee asking?
me:  no i am!
mike.j.lazzaro:  pffft askin for her
me:  no srsly!

Simple Socializing

Is this legal? 

The majority of said food

WINGS AND KEBABS

Hello there!

Pat, Babe, you got a little sauce right there…

Nom nom nom

Hold me close young Tony Danza

Oh Pat! Teeheehee

I think there was some political debate going on here

A little backwards?

Ummm…whats going on here?

Construction buddies!

HEY HEY there are other people around! HAVE YOU NO SHAME!?

Ok ok have some FUDGE.

Pot Heads! This is where they currently reside.

I can not look at these pictures with out laughing my face off. Haha. Best idea ever.

I’m pretty sure that until Pat returns to Vancouver we will just have to bring his Kebab everywhere with us. That is, unless it goes moldy. He does have a lot of food on his face…

Check out Marlee’s hilarious post over here.

Check out all my pictures here.

Yes, it is another magical Friday where no one is here except for me. Though Claudia should be arriving shortly. I really don’t understand how everyone else manages to get Friday off. Oh well.

Just looking through my Flickr albums and I realized that I have so many albums of recent events yet I totally have not blogged about them. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.

I was talking with Marlee the other night about blogging and I mentioned to her that I miss that time in blogging when people wrote about their lives and told stories about things they did on the weekend or wrote about a conversation they had with their mother and stuff like that. It seems these days more people are using their blogs as promotional tools for other things. The level of personal blogging has declined and inistead it is filled with advertisments for products. Now I know everyone does it every now and then, but its one thing to try out like a new hair straightener and love it to death and want to talk about it, but it is another thing to have almost every post talking about a new place to visit, or a new product to try. I would actually, so much rather read about what you had for breakfast and how you stubbed your toe on the way out. But thats just me.

And maybe I am just crazy.

I have a full day of blogging coming up.

I left work a few minutes early yesterday to run to the store to pick up some veggies. I was thinking about dinner and realized we didn’t have any lettuce. We could not have dinner with out lettuce.

Once I got there I realized there was no point in buying just a head of lettuce and then using a credit card to pay for it. Oh the paroles of never having cash on hand. I didn’t want to buy too much stuff as I knew the fridge was pretty full of vegetables so I opted for some tomatoes and  two peppers. The peppers I would get the husband to BBQ.

In wanting to be speedy I grabbed what I need in my hand and didn’t go for a basket. The veggies felt cool against my thin t-shirt but I didn’t think much about it, that was, until I put the veggies down to pay for them. A tomato had exploded on my nice white t-shirt. The same t-shirt that I figured was on the verge of death but wanted to try and save as much as possible. It was a bad scene.

The veggies came to $5.26.

There was no way I could save the T-shirt. It was hot out and I had no soap. I also had a 20 minute car ride home in a non air-conditioned car. There was no hope. I feared the worse.

I came home to my sauna like apartment and stripped off my clothes, replacing them with as little as possible while still remaining presentable. I remembered that we had a little bit of the martini mix from Sunday left over and figured I might as well finish it off. Vodka on a Tuesday. Don’t judge. I went to the freezer to get some ice and I noticed the door was slightly open. There was a pool of water forming underneath the door. The freezer was warm. The ice had melted. The meat was partially thawed. It took all my strength to calmly backed away.

It seemed as though my dear husband had gone into the freezer that morning to get some toast and did not notice that he had not shut the door properly. This simple absent minded act now destroyed all that I had been longing for; the cooling sensation of an iced martini. I was instantly filled with negative emotions, though knowing full well that this act was not done intentionally, I could not help it. Who does this on a bloody hot day! The day of all days! There was nothing I could do other then screaming into a towel the profanities of the world.

This unfortunately series of events made me forgot all about my nicely stained white t-shirt.

I carried on and began to prepare dinner. Everything on the BBQ. So simple yet so satisfying.

Finally the destroyer of my ice dreams came home and I immediately pointed to the freezer like pointing to a puddle of pee that a little puppy had left behind. And like a puppy who left behind a puddle of pee, I knew I couldn’t be mad for two long when I saw that oh so cute look on his face.

The heat of the apartment made me want to throw up. Outside there was a nice breeze but inside it was the stench of roasting souls.

The husband asked what I had picked up at the store. I told him the story about needing the lettuce and the credit card and the exploding tomato. He looked at me with a funny glare and proceeded to remind me that we had just bought lettuce on Saturday. Blasted! He was right. How could I have forgotten? This whole stained white t-shirt could have been avoided if only I had a better memory. I was embarrassed.

We ate dinner and it was amazing. The highlight of my day.

I knew that if I had any hopes of surviving the evening I had to get outside as quick as possible, but the more I cleaned up, the hotter I got, and the more I just wanted to leave everything as it was to escape to the cool blue yonder. I did the least amount of work possible. I loaded the dishwasher, cleared the table and bolted. Everything else about the apartment was exactly the way I had left it Sunday night after the party. Bowls of stale chips and unwashed martini glasses piled upon each other in the corner. It was just too hot to do anything about it now.

I grabbed Eleanor Rigbyand the one Popsicle that had not completely melted and headed to the deck. Oh outside, how much I love thee.

I never really gave Eleanor a chance. I’d read a few pages here and there, but never enough to become completely engrossed in the story. This is no way to read a book. You forget what you read last week before you are done reading this week. It was time I give her the attention she deserved. Plus it was too hot to go back inside and there was nothing else to do outside.

I finished the whole book last night. I couldn’t stop reading it. I loved it. Though I felt the ending was maybe rushed a bit but maybe that’s because I just wanted it to keep going. I wanted to know more about Liz now that she wasn’t lonely.

The clock hit 10pm.

I was nicely cooled at this point. My repitle like body had returned to a reasonable temperature and I was feeling good. I decided to get up, water the plants, put away the clothes on the bed and send myself off to dream land. My head thought this was a good idea, my body did not.

The second my body got up and started moving around it over heated. All the work I had done to cool it down was lost. I was in disbelief. I was suffocating in my own skin wanting to shed layers in hopes of finding a cool retreat.

Instead I went to the bedroom and found the stained white t-shirt under the husbands work clothes. I had forgotten about it. The stain had set. Dammit, Danielle. This shirt and I had been through so much. Squished chocolate, spilled wine, pasta sauce drippings, the works. And now, to be destroyed by the tiniest of tomato explosions. What had I done?

I ran to the bathroom and drowned it in soap and water. I scrubbed it like a poor Italian woman washing her clothes in the nearby stream thinking that I still had time to revive it. But my faith in the magic soap was fading away. Now it just looked orange. I was defeated. I threw it in the laundry basket trying to deny what had just happened.

Maybe the washing machine would be stronger then I!

Maybe it would work and I would have one more chance with my favorite shirt!

Maybe all hope was NOT lost!

And if not?

Another one bites the dust.

I lay on the bed and kicked off all the sheets. The fan was in the living room cooling off the husband. I was about to kill myself with heat exhaustion.  All I wanted was some lettuce with dinner, an iced martini, a clean apartment, and cooling evening. And all of it was lost.

I hate the heat.

We headed out to Chads new favorite pub on Saturday night to celebrate Kelly (a friend of my cousins) birthday. It’s funny because I have heard my cousins talk about Kelly and her sister Shannon for years but it wasn’t until recently that we actually met them and started to hang out. Kelly was gracious enough to invite us out to her birthday celebrations, which just happened to be at Dublin’s Crossing. I knew once Chad saw that there was no saying no to this event. (Not that I wanted to say no)

This is the only picture I have of Kelly. I know, I’m bad, but the one we took of us didn’t turn out and the other pictures are on Elises camera. Kelly is in the blue talking to the boys.

Sorry Time from the Vault of Ciavarro.

So as you can see in the picture above there is supposed to be Scotch in both those glasses, and they are suppose to be the SAME Scotch, but as you can tell they look very different. Here’s what happened…

Mr. Ciavarro requested two orders of Scotch for him and Ryan, both to be served neat (without ice). The waitress comes back, drops off one glass of Scotch neat and then realizes the other glass is on the rocks. So she runs back to the bar and two seconds later drops off the second glass. Chad grabs then both to take a look at them and we immediately notice the difference.

Now Chad, oblivious to the waitress accidentally bringing one glass neat and one glass on the rock s, automatically assumes the she screwed up the order and brought two different types of Scotch. While they discuss back and forth why two glasses of the exact same Scotch look and smell so different a light bulb goes off in Ryan’s head. The waitress, realizing she made a mistake and not wanting to ‘waste’ a $9 drink must have taken the ice out and served the same glass of Scotch, which at this point would have been cooled and diluted by the ice. Well Chad was having none of this and demanded to speak to the waitress immediately.

She finally arrived and admitted to just removing the ice and re-serving the drink. Chad was flabbergasted. This was no way to treat the finest product Scotland has ever exported! With the wave of the hand he told her it was no good and would need a freshly poured dram of Scotch immediately. To this she obliged knowing full well that she had screwed up.

Yet another *legendary* interaction between Mr. Ciavarro and a Dublin’s Crossing waitress!

Much happier!

My attempt at a group shot ahahaha!

I really do love hanging out with Ryan & Elise. We get along so easily and its such a blast to have them around. It also helps that we are family!

It was a great night, even though was had to drive ALLLLL the way into Surrey through fields of cows, as Chad puts it.

Dublin’s Crossing is pretty much the “Gem” of the Valley.

Kelly’s  Birthday at Dublin’s Crossing

I don’t think I will ever get use to the amount of crazy that this year is dishing out.

I just don’t even know what to say any more. All I can do is laugh. Thank God I have what I have.

There have never been so many stories to tell.

Sweet Jesus.

Alicia, Marlee, and I are going fabric shopping today. Project ‘Under the Shade of an Evergreen’ starts tonight.

That’s all I got for now.