Text 2409, 60 rader
Skriven 2013-07-13 12:03:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: picnic trip 861
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We arrived at Annie's in the midafternoon. Gail and Dale were
issued the downstairs bedroom, which has an ensuite bath that
is my favorite in the house, being done in a sort of Southwest
desert style. The others are, let's see, downstairs a black
bordelloish half bath that now belongs to Jupiter and his
father and a rather plain half bath that belongs to Lola the
Turkish Van; upstairs, mine, which is also somewhat plain
and has a slightly inadequate shower but a decent bathtub and
the distinct advantage of having a washing machine; Annie's,
which has a fish motif; and Billy's, now unoccupied, which
has one of those strange but cute showers that squirt water
up and down your body with 6 or 8 nozzles. I of course was
put up in my room (a few times ago I was moved from the
stuffed animals room to the newly done music-themed one,
which has a French horn chandelier and trumpet and flute
lamps with music wallpaper and musical instrument curtains).

As it was Annie's house, a few beers were in order, and then
snacktime before supper. Though not super hungry, and though
a full meal was coming up soon, we had a bag of Cheetos, a
tub of Trois Petits Cochons duck liver pate (minimum 50%
foie gras), and assorted crackers including a Wegmans
bruschetta cracker that Gail deemed good - Annie had got
these in a Christmas basket for having been one of Wegmans'
best customers, and I thought that they tasted of slightly
over-the-hill olive oil, despite their being well within the
drop-dead date. The pate was popular though a little on the
salty side.

Ribeyes were the order of the day. I cooked one blue, one
medium, and the rest rare to medium-rare. A moment of
consternation when Annie cut into hers and found it too rare;
but Dale discovered that his was too well done, so they
switched. Apparently I had not paid sufficient attention and
had given Annie Dale's and vice versa. As Robbie was over for
the occasion, we had his favorite, sauteed mushrooms, on the
side. It was also time for the first local corn of the season,
so we had that, bought from Tebbs' farm stand; it was good.

Piece de resistance - sour cherry pie. Annie claimed to have
pitted 1000 cherries for this pie - in reality, I estimate
about 400, maybe a few more. Still quite a feat. It was a
fine pie (Annie is very talented), not too sour, not too
sweet, the crust made from Crisco, because she'd run out of
lard.

We toddled to bed somewhat later than we thought we could
stay up to, food, drink, and company combining to energize
us for a bit.

I had a crummy night, though, as the a/c in my room was
malfunctioning; though Annie had turned it to 72, it was
probably close to 85 when I opened the door. I turned it to
minimum (64), and it kept blowing warm air. I ended up
putting it on fan only, and when the outside temperature
got below 75, blessed sleep came. That was 4 am or so.

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