lazy couple of days!

it's been a lazy couple of days around here! lazy and beautiful!

 

these pics were taken on saturday - here's out back:



it was a gorgeous day! it would have been a perfect river day but saturday was our friend d's 50th birthday! we went down to our community centre to help set up and decorate from 10-12 with our friends e and s. then we came home and made 36 baguette sandwiches (smoked meat, black forest ham and havarti), a bucketload of jambaloney's famous oatmeal cookies! once we finished doing all of that, it was time to go back to the community centre and help set up all the food - there was a ton of food for the supper - it was all kinds of sandwiches and sweets - and that was great because everybody filled up and we still had a ton of sandwiches and sweets to snack on at the birthday party dance that evening!

our friend d came in to the hall for the supper and he really was surprised! his birthday isn't until late december so he really fell for "the story" that the supper was for our friends s & h - bahahahaha! our friends s &h had planned on having a supper earlier this fall but had to cancel it, so it totally made sense to d that the event was being scheduled for, and by, them. he was shocked when he walked in the hall!!! and embarrassed!!!

the supper and dance were a real hoot - we all had a blast. the only bummer was that we thought our brother and sister, g &c, would be there but they couldn't make it! anyway, we sat with d at the supper and his whole family, which is really our family, too, snacked on sandwiches and sweets, laughed, sang happy birthday - the whole shebang! d is a true and proper woodsman, he works various contracts, some for the government, some for private, and he maintains a variety of woodlots and various protected forest full-time. he also owns the blueberry farm where we get all of our blueberries! his wife e had a really special cake made for him with different coloured pine trees standing on top of the cake, 2 piles of wood and a few deer - it was really pretty - oh, and tasty too!

anyway, we snuck out after 2 hours and had plans on going to see our friends c &b before the dance. but on the way up our road we noticed that there were people at our friends cottage, dm & j's. we thought they might have come up for the weekend and we wanted to be sure that they knew about the dance. they have a really long driveway so i told jambaloney to stay in the truck and i would run up to see who was visiting. i get up to the door and my friend dm has about 13 of her girlfriends and sisters up for the weekend. they are all screeching, drinking and laughing and dm was so happy to see me. i was happy to see her too! they wanted me to have a drink with them but i told them that we had to leave to go to our other friends place. as i had been in the house a good 15 mins, jambaloney came strolling up the driveway and across their front porch. they have a big picture window out to the porch and one of the ladies saw jambaloney and said "the stripper's here!" - oh my goodness did we laugh. he didn't hear her, opens up the door with a big grin on his face, all of us ladies are killing ourselves laughing, and then another lady said "woohoo! the stripper's here!" - bahahahahah! you can imagine that jambaloney went beet red and said "that's it. i'm outta here!" - bahahahahah! oh they teased the crap out of him - it was sooo funny!

because we had stayed so long, when we got home to change, we didn't have time to go to our friends' house - i called them and they said they would meet us at the dance.  we got to the dance at 9, hooked up with all of our friends and the birthday boy, and let's just say that a party ensued! we had such a good time - it was awesome! they had put the gifts and cards in the canteen but our crazy friend s went and got his gift because he wanted d to open it. for anyone with sensitivities, skip to the next paragraph. anyway for our matriarch's 75 birthday, s got her a full-sized blow-up doll with a strap-on you-know-what attached to it. we weren't here for that as it was several years ago. apparently though, everyone got a really good laugh out of it and were fighting amongst themselves on who got to dance with the doll. i guess everyone in the place had a round with the doll - isn't that a scream?!?!?!? so crazy s got our friend d a 3-d portrait of Jesus and a purple feather boa. in another bag, he got him chainsaw blade oil and chainsaw oil. i thought that was a gag too, but d was over the moon! then d explained to me that he goes through tons of that stuff out in the woods all day!

i then told jambaloney to go and get our gift. our friend d seemed pretty pleased with the true and proper swiss army knife that we got him! he opened it up and opened and showed everyone every, single tool on that thing! i think he really liked it and we were glad to give him something that he could use. he kept saying "this will come in pretty handy out in the woods" - and that's what we thought when we got it for him! he is a good friend and we wanted to get him something nice, but useful, too.

well, it was about that time that the party broke out into a full swing! we danced our butts off (and paid dearly for it the next day!), chatted, laughed, hung out, danced some more and closed the place at about 2:30!!! we had a really awesome time and our friend d was tanked out of his mind! he had a really good time up dancing more than he usually does and we were all glad to see him having such a good time. the poor dear, tho, had to be up early to take his mother and neices to church - bahahahaha! oh the poor guy!

me and jambaloney slept in the next morning, and when we got up, moaned and cried from all the aches from all that dancing. we sure aren't 20 anymore!!! but we had such a good time and then flopped around for the rest of the day! yesterday we flumped around some more. but much good food was eaten over the weekend!

here's some aloo gobi with coriander, rice, our friend d's apples, some sprouts and mandarine.

there is absolutely nothing better for a hangover than tom young goong soup! it is made with homemade broth, homemade hot sauce, coconut milk, coriander, sprouts, chilies, shrimp and mushroom - it's a great cure for any ailments!

here's some yummy fried haddock, steamed broccoli and our friend d's apples - deelish!

and finally, our breakfast this morning - romaine and iceberg lettuce, vermicelli, carrot slices, sprouts and shrimp with a deadly kick-you-in-the-head lime/chili dressing!

that lime/chili dressing will definitely put hair on your chest - bahahahah! you really have to be tough to eat it as it makes your eyes water and burn, makes your nose run and burn, sets your mouth on fire and after eating it, it makes you feel like you are hopped up on 20 cups of coffee!!!! but it is a wonderful dressing and really makes you feel good!!!

anyway - tomorrow jambaloney is off to town. our router is on the blink and we need a new one. and he'll grab some groceries. our preps are fully stocked except for stuffed green olives. i like to have 24 jars on hand at all times because i go through kicks where i will eat a whole jar in a day. and we are down to like 6 jars so time to stock back up! other than that, tho, our preps are in good shape.

i hope you all had a fantastic weekend! we sure did! now we are heading out to process and properly store our carrots and potatoes! it's a warm, foggy, wet day - perfect day for it!