The housewarming party went really well yesterday. Most people were able to attend despite the poxy child, and in a fortuitous combination of good weather and me just not being up to trying to otherwise entertain said poxy child, basically the adults spent the entire afternoon and evening outside in the vast, beautiful back garden while the kids alternated between watching TV, running around, and reading graphic novels. Normally I wouldn’t let them have the TV on, but…yeah. This time they got to, and so basically the Long Room was theirs and the rest of the house was ours. :)
Adults outside:
One of the kids (the child of a librarian) came to me and said, in horror, “You know those graphic novels you used to have on top of the bookcase that are now on three shelves? They’re OUT OF ORDER!!!”
I told him he could put them in order and he lit right up in undisguised joy, and later reported, happily, that they were all in order now. :)
A great deal of heavy lifting was accomplished by big strong handsome men, and now everything that was intended to be taken out of the upstairs has been, and beds have been switched around, and there’s at least some room to continue unpacking.
The engineer in attendance was delighted to hear there was a swingset to build, and took over the construction and supervision of construction of said swingset. Many people stood around and observed, with the occasional intervention for heavy lifting.
Other people, distressed that I had been in the kitchen preparing food in one fashion or another the entire time they were there, took over the kitchen-cleaning duties after all the food was gone, and left the whole place much more manageable than I had expected it to be.
Mom gave everybody tours of the house, and people asked when it was exactly I’d met with the devil to sign away my soul, and said things like, “I’m going to take a turn down to the end of the garden; I’ll be back in an hour or so,” and sat around on picnic blankets conversing and eating and generally seeming to have a lovely time. I certainly did.
For all of their hard work, people were rewarded with sheets of brownies to take home with them, as well as, of course, the actual barbeque stuff, which all turned out nicely. Burgers, hot dogs, potato salad, homemade lemonade (which was REALLY good and had to be rationed because when it was gone, it was gone!), salad, crisps, soda, and hot fudge brownie sundaes at the end of it all.
Slightly funky panoramic of descending upon the feast. :)
