first deck party

We were up at 7 AM on Wednesday (6/14) in time for all sorts of repair people to visit…however contrary to what we were told on Tuesday, no one showed up until 9 AM!!!  By then I was SKYPing with Janice, after which my honey made me a smurfy breakfast:  

What with one thing and another…like making an ice box cake for dessert: 

I didn’t get back to my machine until 1 PM.   I got the quilt totally basted, and got 6 rows of quilting done before out party started:

Now, we scheduled our first deck party for Wednesday night….we were trying to get the neighbors in before our new neighbors took off on a 10 day trip to Ireland….what with one thing and another, that may have been a mistake!  Everyone was supposed to arrive at 7:30 or 8 to finalize the fixes to the deck.  Miguel the painter was here to touch up the deck ceiling and the media room ceiling, he arrived at 9 AM.  He had to do some primer over the water spots:

then left to let it dry, supposedly to return at 1 PM,  The bad part about this?  Oil based paint, so we can’t close up the house and put on the air and it is DISGUSTINGLY hot upstairs!!!  The screen/window people came around 2 PM to fix up a few things…what I thought was just a streak of dirt on one of the windows was actually a flaw in the vinyl that needed to be replaced.  And one of the flaws in the screen that I questioned turned out to be a hole, so that needed to be replaced as well.  This guy was working all alone and I swear he went up and down that 2 story ladder at least a dozen times in over 90 degree heat!

My honey wanted to put our chimes back up, so he also was out there in that heat:

I love a man with a big tool  :-)

After he finished, he did the usual daily harvest....

our first plum tomato!!!!

By 4 PM the painter hadn’t returned (he just put on primer in the morning, then left it to dry) and our furniture was all topsy-turvy and the house was a mess!  At 5:30 PM (party starting at 7:30) this is what part of our house and deck looked like: 

and the painter and window guys were still working  :~(.  What can I say, I still remember when I threw a tea during the first 6 months we were here and I had NO furniture, since it was all out being recovered and didn’t come back in time  :~).  Anyway, they were all finally done at 6:30 and Michael and I ran around like crazy people and got everything set up.  Our guests arrived at 7:30 and we headed out to the deck for dessert (ice box cake) and champagne.  

from right: Pete, Kay, Miss Anne

from right: Miss Anne, Bryce, Ann Mary, Dee, Jim

from right: Paula, Jan, Susan, Joe & Cookie

from left: Doug, Howard, Michael

our party table in the aftermath!

Everyone sat around talking and I think having a good time until 9:30.  Michael and I were pretty pooped after everyone left and we read for just a bit before bed.