OMG WTF BBQ
Saturday was a very relaxing day. Most of the daylight hours were spent sitting on the sofa doing not much of anything. I’ve become recently addicted to Sudoku – this numbers game that has been showing up all over the place. I’m no master yet, but I like it. So I was playing that while Mike was shredding away at SSX-4, a fabulous game, if I do say so, and I do.
Time flew by, and it was approaching the time of departure. I had to run out to get something, so I grabbed my purse, slipped on my sandals, and opened the front door. I was promptly hit in the face with blowing snow. That’s right, snow. In October. WTF? Close door. Slip off sandals. Get socks. Get coat. Zip up boots. Apply gloves. Apply hat. Outside.
I got back in just in time to watch Mike beat the crap out of yet another level of SSX, and he did that just in time for us to get ready to leave. We got ready for winter, and headed for my car. Much driving ensued, complete with traffic enviable for a weekday morning.
We arrived just a few minutes late, but we were among the first guests. Our friends were celebrating their first house and Halloween, at the same time! How can you go wrong with that? We got the tour, met the kittens, and were shown the back porch, complete with grill, where today’s barbeque would be happening. That’s right, I said barbeque. You should recall that it was snowing.
More guests arrived as happy conversation, spiked apple cider, and Mario Party were dispersed throughout the house. Neither Mike nor I were costumed, but there were some fabulous costumes in attendance, including, but not limited to, a pirate (our lovely hostess), a school girl, a fuzzy cat (she loved all creatures! and scared the crap out of the cats), and a devilish Liberace. Another guest was wearing all of his clothing inside out, complete with exterior boxers – the world was wearing him. Our host, who happens to be the subject of the webcomic Life of Fred, which happens to be drawn by our lovely hostess (and which you should definitely be reading), was wearing a specially made tee-shirt, which was grey, and pictured a pumpkin, which pictured the comicified Fred, who was wearing a tee-shirt, which was grey, and pictured a pumpkin, which pictured the comicified Fred, who was wearing a tee-shirt, which was grey, and pictured a pumpkin, which pictured the comicified Fred, who was wearing a tee-shirt…
Our poor host… turns out he can’t cook. Or at least, he can’t barbeque in the snow. Of course, that’s not really fair, the snow being thrown in there. I went out to help him bring in a batch of hamburgers and hotdogs. One hamburger fell through the grate to meet up with its partner who he had dropped through earlier. Meanwhile, three of the hotdogs were on fire. One of them was successfully put out, but the other two had to be thrown onto the snowy pavement to be extinguished. Ahh… carbon! Meanwhile, our hostess had made some spectacular potato salad, and since I don’t eat hotdogs or hamburgers anyway, I was quite excited by the potatoey-mayonasey-cucumbery-goodness. Plus there were cupcakes.
After the epic Mario Party game was over, the Game Cube was unplugged in favor of a super-slim PS2. (When geeks get together, technology cannot be far behind.) The PS2 was brought along with a couple different versions of Karaoke Revolution, a game which I had only heard of in passing. Let me just say, it is the most awesome game in the world, and I now require it.
Sarah, the owner of the afore mentioned game, and her duet partner Laura, our lovely hostess, swept up the competition in the first round, beating the rest of us into submission. My partner Randy and I (we named ourselves Sparkles and Glitter) came in second, but not really a close second… we were all trounced.
In the second round, my new partner Tara (who gave herself the matching name of Bubbles) and I got four songs in a row that we did not know at all. We were a disaster. We failed. But it wasn’t our fault! The software was out to get us! Mike (who happens to be nearly tone-deaf) and his partner (who was on the losingest team in the first round) nearly won that competition, to everyone’s surprise. It was amazing.
We realized that it was getting late and we had to be up early in the morning, so we took off for home. Luckily, the snow and traffic had subsided, so we got home in good time. I had a lot of fun playing with and a really wonderful time talking with people that I don’t often get to see in person any more. When blogs become the primary form of communication between people, you know your life is surreal.
Yay! Flaming hot dogs are fun!
I really do like fire…