1. Adrienne, Josh, Jack, and Ellie arrived in Kellogg late this morning from New York. Not surprisingly, Jack and Ellie have grown up quite a bit since I last saw them in September of 2021. Ellie's vocabulary has increased about 500 fold in the last two years and Jack has grown into a bona fide almost teenager, taller, his voice changed, and he's in possession of a battery of middle school jokes (stupid ones!) and a silly sense of humor.
Debbie laid out a sandwich bar and, fortunately, the weather today was comfortable and we could sit on the patio and visit.
The Langfords spent some time in the afternoon resting and napping after having started their day so early to fly out here.
We settled into one another's company easily and comfortably. It's terrific having them here -- they'll stay until Friday.
2. For Carol's 60th birthday (July 3rd), Christy, Paul, Molly, Zoe, and Cosette huddled last Christmas and started to plan a big party that they threw today in Carol and Paul's back yard.
This extravaganza got going at 4:00 with about 50-60 (or more?) attendees settling in, starting out with a glass of wine or lemonade or ice tea or water.
Some time around 4:30, Paul led the congregation in a toast and offered up a prayer of thanks for the food we were about to enjoy, and everyone lined up in the house and filled their plates with cold cuts, cheese, fruit, vegetables, a variety of salads, chips, and other simple and delicious offerings.
A while later, the afternoon's entertainment got underway as Paul, Molly, Zoe, and Cosette performed a series of songs with the aid of their karaoke machine and Carol and Paul brought the entertainment to a close by dancing to a duet sung by Ed Sheeran and Beyonce.
The party's last communal event was answering trivia questions about Carol's life on a printed card intermixed with names being drawn for door prizes.
I sure hope this party was just what Carol had imagined and hoped for: people attended from all stages of her life and all parts of her life; Carol loves sunflowers and she wore a ring of sunflowers in her hair and the party's decor featured sunflowers and other flowers that Christy and Tracy contributed and arranged; it was a festive party with lots of laughter, music, delicious food, and good cheer.
I hope Carol had a great time kicking off her summer long celebration of turning 60 years old.
I'm not sure what all she has planned, but she is definitely going into the summer with the motto, "You only turn 60 once!" and she's going to make the most of it!
3. As I've been recovering this week from getting overheated a week ago, I was concerned that I might get overexposed to heat at Carol's party.
To my profound relief, today was a most comfortable day. The temperature was moderate, a cooling breeze (sometimes a wind) kicked up intermittently, and I was completely comfortable the whole time.
I only drank water at the party, but once we were back home and enjoying the comfort of our patio, I decided to drink a little bit of beer.
Josh avidly enjoys craft beer. He was enjoying NoLi's Born and Raised IPA and Debbie asked me if I wanted to split a bottle of Pfriem's IPA. I was feeling good and decided to give it a try. I poured myself a small glass and it was superb, both the beer and the conversation with Josh and Debbie. Josh then pulled a tall can of NoLi's Cascade Fog, a hazy IPA, out of the fridge and he and Debbie and I split it. One more small glass of beer for me, another superb one, and I thoroughly enjoyed yakkin' about beer and other things with Josh and Debbie and feeling the early summer night air of Kellogg grow increasingly cool minute by minute, a source of great comfort.
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