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Smiles of a Summer Night

Monday, July 28, 2008

I wasn't going to say anything. I really wasn't. But Bill blew my cover in his blog, and then people piped up all over the place saying, "So how was the party?" Uh, who said anything about a party?

It defies description. It was the best party I've ever been to or hosted or anything, and I have my sweet BOTB to thank for that, and dear Margaret, and my other friends all of whom pitched in to make it a night to remember. You know who you are. Twinkle Girl, FlankSteak, BottleCap, SpringRoll, Cheap Lawnchair, PolishPants, KayakBoy, FabulousFungus, NatureMama and Pennsylvania Wine, to single out just a few.

The weather was perfect, sunny and clear and about 82 degrees with low humidity.photo by Jane Streett

Bill transformed our four-car garage into a performance space, draped with tapestries and colored lights.

Friends came from far and near.

He hired our very favorite band, the Patrick Sweany Band.Nope, not my photo, sadly.

Just looking at Patrick made me forget which birthday we were celebrating. He makes me feel like spring has sprung, and there's a wonderful song to be sung.

There were scallops the size of your palm, and little crab cakes, and Kobe beef in red pepper sauce, sour cherry pies and rice salad and fresh peaches from Grimm's Green Acres and cheeses and strawberries and wine and fancy beer and just every delicious thing you could think of, and this apparition chased me around all night with trays of food, asking if I wanted anything.photo by Jane Streett

There was a giant photo of me smiling down on the proceedings, just in case anyone forgot why they came. Heaven forfend. Along about ten, Patrick sang our song, Rain on the Delta.
And I told Bill how much it all meant to me.
After that, it got a little crazy, kind of Southern-fried and sweaty and hot.There was dancing, and some beers were consumed.
The Swinging Orangutangs played a few sets, too. But mostly, we partied, letting Patrick and the boys carry the music. Along about 2 AM, everybody got hungry again, but the fancy food was gone. Bill of the Burgers to the rescue. Band, front and center. I believe that this is the gig against which all the Patrick Sweany Band's future gigs will be measured.

Then it was time for jokes. I will not disclose what was discussed here, except to say that Jess and I felt very much one of the boys.
Chet Baker retired to the lap of his foster mether, Mary Jane. The faithless little sprite leapt into David and Mary Jane's car the following morning, ready for another stint at Camp Baker. They almost pulled it off, then came rolling back up the driveway with big triumphant smiles and Chet in the front seat. Hmmph.

Tents had sprung up all over Indigo Hill just before dark, and the last revelers crawled into their sleeping bags around three. Little did they know that the birds start yelling at 5:15, and the sun would cook them slowly to doneness by 7:00. Hey, we'll sleep when we're dead.

Aftermath: tomorrow.

20 comments:

Sounds like a blast -- happy birthday!

very nice n beautiful pics...first time i have read u,n have very imressed from ur blog...pls visit to my blog...n tell me..would u like to be my friend?

Now you even have Tom interested in coming to the Mid-Ohio Valley! Keep it up.

A great party for a great lady. Wow!

Did Mick Jagger put in an appearance?... he just had a birthday too (65th!! -- musicians can party forever).

Wow, what a great party Julie! My DH would never be able to come up with something that grand on his own. You have a keeper for sure. Hope it was the happiest birthday ever. :c)

hi rakhshanda... u R gonna hv to lrn englsh, stop being a spammer, figure out where the shift key is, n stop stealing my images 4 yr fake blog 2 be my friend. N then there are other requirements we won't go in2 now.

K?

K.

What fun! Who says birders can't party?

Happy birthday, and wishes for many more with your sweetie.

HA! Go git 'er, Julie :o)

What a wonderful way to celebrate, and you deserve every single minute of it. I'm so happy for you.

And you've got to feel great about Chet getting into the car. It surely can't be hard to leave him at Camp Baker.

Thanks for sharing this great party with us.

Wow! That WAS a party!
Happy birthday!

Happy b-day, Julie!
I'm glad it "slipped" out--gives all who love you the chance to wish you the best.
What a wonderful evening you must have had!

While I don't know your age, gentlemen and Canadian don't ask,
if you were in Canada and it would be in metric.
For example I am 61 or 37 in metric.
There are some advantages to living in the great white north.

Baker, you're a sneak.

How did you know that rakhshanda was a spammer and fake blog? Did you go to the site and find out that way?

This is my biggest fear since I started a blog, so I'd love to know how you became aware.

Dear Mountainwoman,

My first instinct on seeing the sub-English fake comment was just to delete it, but I decided to have a little fun instead.

Red Flag #1: The picture is of a drop-dead gorgeous foreign woman, almost certainly not an image of anyone who'd read my middle-aged naturelady blog out of real interest. Not my demographic.

Red Flag #2: All spammers go to the same grammar school, and say the same supergeneralized crap, because they're spamming hundreds of blogs at a time.

#4: There's the slight whiff of porn about the comment, kind of a solicitation. Phew.

#4: I hit the link and found a fake Blogger profile, with two blogs made up of nothing but question marks, and images lifted from other blogs. Finding an image of one of my paintings on its fake blog "pretty woman" made me mad!

#4: Because I have my own domain name, I get tons and tons of spam, most of it from Asia, gibberish about runescapes and wowgold. I spend too much of what should be my creative time deleting those spammy comments, and denying any further comments on the posts they're attacking. Taking the time to do that has helped, but it still drives me nuts.

I trust there is a special ring of Hell for spammers like rakhshanda. I'd lay good money down to bet he's a shapeless blob, sitting in his parents' basement somewhere in New Delhi, with ghee dripping down the front of his tee shirt. Strike me down if I'm wrong, but I doubt we'll be hearing a refutation from Spamshanda.

Well, I came to wish you a happy birthday--but now I am laughing at the turn of comments. A la spammers. And your having fun, and your five easy ways to recognize a spammer.
It does make me think of one of my early lectures in English 101 -- I point out to students that they are here to learn writing and that TEXT messaging is NOT writing.

Wow, that sounds like one heckuva birthday shindig! Glad you all had a great time!

Happy Birthday Julie!

so verrie happy 4 yr glad times...pls 2 visit me n B my frend

Luv,

KD, the anti-spammer

Happy birthday to a kickin' gal!

What are you now, 28? 29?
: )
That looks like a rocking party! I THOUGHT I heard some rumbling to the east.....

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