A Dinner Party At Farmington=Scary [Office]

I’ve written a bit already about outings with our summer clerks already, e.g., here and here. But somehow we got roped into hosting a casual dinner party for 6 summer clerks (and a guest) and a number of fellow associates on Saturday night. Neither Holly nor I are hosts by nature–I’m too self-centered, Holly to much of a perfectionist. In fact, in 14+ years of marriage, we’ve only had a handful of people over for dinner. We’ve never come close to hosting a party of 17–even my parents and siblings don’t come close.

Given all of this plus the fact that we’ve never really gotten around to hanging many pictures and stuff on the walls of any our houses–Holly buys the items, but they sit in a closet or our bedroom for years, literally–there was plenty to do on Friday and Saturday to get ready for the party. I was not looking forward to it. Gratefully, it all went pretty well. Plant some flowers, hang a few pictures, don’t dirty up what the cleaning woman already cleaned, buy liquor, etc. Emma had a great time playing with worms, snails, caterpillars unearthed during the flower planting. She would pick them up, squeal with delight/terror as their crawled across her arm, fling them to the ground, and repeat.

The one disappointing part was the caterer. The menu sounded pretty good, but the whole thing was not up to Holly’s expectations. First, they decided not to use chaffing dishes, instead serving the meal in the baking tins. Not exactly high class. Second, the appetizer–shrimp cocktail with mango cocktail sauce and bacon wrapped stuffed peppers–were a bit bland. The caterer was supposed to beer boiled the shrimp, but she bought pre-cooked shrimp by accident. Third, the chicken dish was, well, eh. Fourth, the vegetables–so I hear–pretty bland: saffron rice, french cut green beans and carrots, and a squash and onion dealy (technical term). Fifth, the appetizers were chintzy. She was doing a bunch of bite-size cheesecakes, chocolates, etc. She didn’t mention that she was going to buy them at Sam’s Club. And the “Key Lime Pie” used just lime juice–that offends even me. Sixth, they were supposed to be long gone before the guests arrived but were in the kitchen a good 25 minutes past the start of the party. Seventh and final point of contention, after all of this, the caterer told Holly, “Tip is not included in the price.” I’m glad we had guests already because Holly might have told the woman what for.

Despite that long list of grievances, I’m not sure whether the guests really cared–both Holly and I tend to focus on the little stuff and have trouble letting these things go. The wine was excellent. Holly bought it all at Times Ten Cellar in Lakewood. Their Pinot Noir is great, though Holly likes white wine better and their dessert wine immensely. Of course, the beer was a hit at well.

Most amazing was the fact that it didn’t rain a drop the whole day. You may not have noticed, but it’s rained a ridiculous amount around here lately. A
day sans raindrops made for a wonderful evening on the patio–with the fans going, it is July in Dallas after all. Finished off the night with some Nording Robustos, some Johnny Walker, and a little PS3.

And a little cleaning up before bedtime. An unmitigated success for us–though I have no idea whether anyone else enjoyed themselves. It was enough for me that the kids were great, the weather was great, the guests seemed to enjoy themselves, and no one died. I’ll not be signing up for another party any time soon.