November 20, 2005

  • What a busy and fun day. First, I arrived at Dave and Kelli's for the
    first time at about 1:30. I helped set up tables and seats and did
    several other things as well, such as eat cookies and
    candy..............you know, important shit. I stood there for about an
    hour before heading home to get dressed and get more shit. I returned
    for good at about 4 in the PM, at which time I prepared some of the
    appetizers and shit like that. It was at this time that I had my first
    of many glasses of wine. MANY glasses of wine. Dave on the other hand,
    had already been drinking straight Brandy on the rocks. Don't ask me
    why he was drinking this, its just what he wanted to drink. People were
    supposed to start arriving between 5 and 6 and at this point, Dave
    finally started getting the turkey deep fryer ready. He "set it up" on
    the sidewalk near the street. Its always recommended that you keep these
    things as far from the house as possible. Its also recommended that you
    face the burner towards the pan instead of towards the ground. Cooking
    is always more effective when the flame is going up towards the meal
    being cooked. This little tidbit of info seemed to be lost on not only
    Dave, but also me as we stood there staring at this damn upside down
    flame. Of course, by this time we were both plenty drunk. Now, I'm not
    really an authority on fire prevention, but perhaps one should not fool
    around with fire while drunk. In this case, the only thing that
    happened was the sidewalk got a little burned and it took us a lot
    longer to cook the turkey. After having the burner upside down for
    about 20 minutes (we could not figure out why it was taking so long for
    the oil to boil) Craig came up to us and noticed the mistake. Dave
    instantly said not to tell anybody what we had done, but I of course
    had to share this with everybody as they showed up. What the hell, it
    was pretty damn funny. Even Dave found it funny.

    People were arriving a little later than expected, which wound up being
    good, because not only was the deep fried turkey a long way from being
    done, but so was the 27 pound turkey that was in the oven. It was ok,
    though, because we had plenty of appetizers to snack on. When we
    finally sat down to eat, it was past 8! Normally, the goal is to be
    eating by 6:30, a goal we usually never make but this was later then we
    have ever eaten.

    After dinner I headed for the smoking lounge Dave had set up in the
    garage for a chocolate flavored cigar. When I took it out of the
    package, I could smell the chocolate, but that was it, it didn't really
    taste like chocolate at all and didn't smell like it while it was lit.

    Really, the whole night went by really fast, but at the same time,
    slow. Don't ask me to explain this, as I have no idea how this could
    be. All the food was pretty good, but I have to be honest, I was a
    little disappointed in the deep fried turkey. We had so many issues
    cooking it, that I think it could have been a lot better. People
    actually started to leave pretty early, just about everybody was gone
    by about 11ish. Dave, on the other hand, had passed out upstairs about
    10:30. I found out later on that he had been feeling sick, not like
    throw up sick, but fever sick. The rest of us sat up talking for a
    couple of more hours. Kelli finally went to be about 12:30. Keith,
    Heather and I sat up playing video games. Do you have any idea how hard
    Tetris becomes when one is drunk? I mean, damn. Of course, Heather was
    just as drunk as I was, so that certainly helped in beating her. After
    a little while, Keith and I started playing Pac Man Fever while Heather
    fell asleep on the couch. It was pretty funny, because I was passing
    out while I was playing. In fact, the whole time we were playing Pac
    Man Fever was a complete blur. Somehow, I managed to win a couple of
    games, which was funny because I had my eyes closed for a good portion
    of the time. Finally, about 2:20, I gave up and went upstairs to bed.
    Keith continued to play video games (primarily Risk) until about 4:30.

    I woke up and got out of bed about 8AM, tired and hungover. Soon, Dave
    followed as did Kelli and Heather. The house was a mess, so we had to
    take some time to clean it up. Keith was still asleep upstairs, until
    Dave started singing that stupid Journey song that was the Sox theme
    song. All of a sudden, in mid verse, we hear Keith start singing along
    from upstairs. Funny shit. Anywho, we had leftovers and watched the
    Bears game before heading home.