Well, as the asthma is still being a pain I've made an appointment to go into the allergist on Thursday to try and see what's up- more than likely its the same damn thing as usual, and I'll end up on a week of Prednisone to tell my immune system to 'Knock it the HELL off!'. In party news, I should get the rest of the cleaning done today (I hope), start the brine before I go to work, bake the cake, pre-prep the cheese-tray and snacks, carve the pumpkins (with help from ataramos, feezlekahn and joshuwain hopefully), get the beer and do whatever ELSE is left.

Tomorrow, I pick up the pumpkin pies and the cooking will prolly get into full swing at 2 or 3 o'clock- I have to check how long the damn bird will take! And then its partytime! I unfortunately will have to leave for work at 10:30, as I couldn't get the time off... But at least I'll be there for most of it. If people are still here when I have to go, I'll appoint a back-up host. ;)

I am SO glad today is trash day- we'll have room in the bin for the after-party trash this time!

Remember- 5 PM Wednesday! See you all there!

The Menu So Far

19# turkey
8# ham supplied by foeclan
8# mashed potatoes
Ciabatta bread
Cranberry sauce (Can-shaped!!)
Pumpkin Pie
Pies supplied by firecatmn
Chocolate frosted devil's food cake
Various chips and crackers with dips
Various cheeses
Relish tray (Celery, carrots and dill pickles)
Pasta supplied by joshuwain
Candied walnuts supplied by joshuwain
Pop (Dr. Pepper, Coke, Fresca black cherry, A&W root beer)
Juice (Apple and Cranberry)
CANDY!! (Supplied by me and mirrdae; Mirr got damn near enough to fill the cauldron on his own!)

If people wanna bring stuff to add, you can see we've a LOT so far- More pop wouldn't be bad, some diet pops and something like 7-Up or an orange pop would be good. :)

As it turns out I have a 19# bird, so the stew will be off the menu as it was just added as a filler anyway. The ham, provided by foeclan is 8#, and should make up any gap in the vittles-supply. :)

I forgot to mention that there will be a supply of pop, as well as apple juice/cider, plus beer. I still have a few foodish odds and ends to pick up, but that'll happen Monday. Today at some point I'll be cleaning, and I don't know if that will go easy or hard. :P See the comments on the previous posts for at least one other thing being provided. Thanks, joshuwain!

Oh, another credit: mirrdae supplied a shit-ton of candy for the cauldron for the munchkins who come by. :)

The party went pretty well, thbough it started a little rough when the prepwork kinda snowballed as people started to arrive. The turnout was a bit lighter than I'd hoped, but that's cool. joshuwain came over early and helped with the setup, supplied the pop and also made etuffe (sp?). firecatmn and hubby brought cookies, and foeclan, who had supplied the cheese, also brought some additional crackers. mirrdae supplied the bread.

I got favorable reviews for the food, though I got several comments that there was too much bay leaf in the sauce. I'll fix that next time around. I've a LOT of leftover meatballs, but thats not a bad thing- meals for the week! Both the caramel rolls and the peanut butter chocolate chip bars went over well.

In terms of loot, I got a leatherbound edition of Lewis Carroll and a Microcenter gift certificate from foeclan, a nice set of folding binoculars and a card from joshuwain, another gift certificate for Microcenter from mirrdae, the Blazing Saddles Special Edition from the family L, and the Speed and Apollo 13 DVDs from firecatmn and hubby. :)

To those who came, thanks for coming- I had a good time, even if my knees hate me. brellchild? You should stop by sometime- there are gifts here for you! CALL FIRST tho.

I have TWO gifts left to get. TWO. Bob W. and danshrugs are the last- and I have NO ideas for either! Aaigh!

I hope they get me lists or something- Though the distribution of loot won't happen til the 6th, I AM running out of time. :P

So, I'll wrap the remaining few I've got to wrap in the morning, after I pick up a card and some other stuff from the store. Tonight I might do some game-writing, but it'll depend on my mood.

The party started slow, with the first guest, danshrugs showing up around 6 PM or so. People trickled in over the next couple of hours, and amazingly enough things timed out damn near perfectly- the turkey came out just as the potatos got done enough to be mashed. :) The stew followed shortly thereafter.

We had a fair bit of talk, and we played 'Its The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown', 'Monsters, Inc.' and a few episodes of the original 'Addams Family' series brought by E. (firecatmn's other half ). Later, there was a bit of horseplay with Nerf guns and pinwheel fireworks. Hee.

So, After all the work things came out well. Yay!

Though... Next year I hope for more help. This was hard, and expensive. The only real help I got this time around was ataramos, though khirsahdrgn did help out with some candy for the cauldron.

Oh- We had a VERY slow year for kids coming by. We had more than half the cauldron still full of candy at the end of the night. :P

And the cleaning continues apace. THe kitchen is pretty much done save for minor rearranging of stuff that can, if necessary, wait til after the party. The front room is done save for vacuuming and decorating- I have to move a computer monitor too, but thats no big deal. The bathroom is finished as well.

That leaves... THE BACK ROOM. O.o

I am NOT looking forward to this. It prolly has to be done at least partly in tandem with my bedroom... And my bedroom is easily WORSE than the back room.

I have a few groceries to pick up it turns out- not a lot, and not all for the party. I'll prolly get 'em on the way home from the game tonight (Sunday).

Right now I'm at work for 9 hours due to Daylight Savings. Not a biggie, really. My neck has been going off for the last few days tho... I dunno if I slept wrong or if we've got weather coming- I bloody well HOPE not; I'll have enough food to feed a small army!

Oh, one lil bit of weirdness. ataramos noticed that the furnace wasn't running, even though it was cold enough for it to kick in- I fiddled with everything I could think of: changing the batteries in the thermostat, checking the breakers, checking the power switch on the furnace... Nothing. Ended up calling Reliant out to check it; We got it running, but it might be that there is a wiring problem... Because it came back on when the outlet-breaker in the bathroom was reset. Weird.

Well, its here. Whee!

My Xmas party on the 19th (Sunday) went quite well- Much lootage was distributed and received, and food was devoured in plenty. :) I got a pile of DVDs, which was exactly what I wanted, and also some Godzilla figurines (2" tall each, roughly). I also got (KickASS!!) a bottle of Banratty Mead, from Ireland, along with the word that a local liquor chain is now importing it! Lessee... What else? Oh, a gift certificate that contributed to the purchase of the special edition of Lord of the Rings- Return of the King, and a Drawing of my old character Savannah by feezlekahn.

As to other events- The Vanguard game took place on the 18th, with all players other than Atara, who is back home til the 10th, being present. I think we did alright, and kindasorta beat the bad guys= we threw a '21' at Dave joshuwain, in that we captured rather than massacring one of the villains, but all in all things went okay.

He's titled the next run 'Devoured'...

What a pleasant thought...

I volunteer Doc Chimera for the devour-ee!