A Life, Lived: What a party!

October 26, 2008

What a party!

There are likely many heavy heads in Palm Desert this morning after the third annual Desert GTG (get together for the uninitiated).

Yesterday's party was a blast. It is 7:30 here in Palm Desert and the house is asleep. I have already had a fight with my on-line banking folks, made coffee, downloaded the 123 pics from the party, and now it is time to blog. Not bad for someone who didn't get to sleep until 1:30! Eeeeekkk

The folks who had traveled from all over the US for the party had a lovely day yesterday exploring the desert or lounging by the pool. Sandi, Paul, Brad, and I worked. Palma had lists for us and we busily checked things off.

First was a delicious breakfast (a treat considering that on the day of last year's party we had to resort to sneaking party food from the fridge for sustenance). Palma said that making breakfast set her schedule off but as with everything she did there was a lot of love in the gesture.

The kitchen help (AKA Sandi, Paul, and Jerry) all had matching Italia crocs which matched Palma's Italian shoes . . .

Sandi had purchased some crocs at the Dollar General and painted them to match Palma's favourite shoes. We all had a bout of silliness induced laughter (or maybe it was the wine).

When the guests started to arrive the food was ready. Palma didn't have a sit down dinner this year, prefering to go with a 'Heavy Buffet', this meant that food was coming out of the kitchen non-stop for the next five hours! The buffet was very heavy and now, sadly, we are too!

Happily she had some REAL kitchen help to assist with this. The guy on the left used to be Frank Sinatra's bartender - I bet he has some stories to tell!

Palma had set food in the dining room, kitchen, great room, and outside. It was great the way folks just wandered around chatting, laughing, nibbling, and sipping wine. I did notice thought that the largest group hung out near the wine. I'm not coming to any conclusions about that behaviour . . . just an observation!

I took hundreds of food photos but this wireless signal I've managed to 'borrow' isn't strong so they'll be loaded later.

Dessert deserves particular mention. Palma had made a four-layer caramel cake that was drizzled with caramel topping and toffee bits. She served this with sea salted caramel gelato she had been making for the last month. WOW

You'll see from the pic below that some folks had difficulty keeping their forks off of other people's plates!

Later Sandi and Paul vanished. I went searching for them and they were in the kitchen doing their best scullery maid imitation. I took pity on them and joined in. Paul has declared that his goal for next year is to convince Palma to use disposable wine glasses! It was a treat washing Palma's ceramic platters - each one likely costing as much as our last flight to Italy. OUCH

Sandi was so stressed by all of this that she required one of our famous martinis.

Bill, if you see this you might want to think about a 12-step program. Just saying . . . .

Brad soon declared that he was tapped out. The remaining partiers got hint and took their leave. Of course Palma wasn't done. We sat in the great room chatting, laughing, and decompressing. We tried to call Gail in Italy but she must have been overserved when she left the number for us because it wouldn't work.

Finally we were nodding of. Palma could have gone all night but the rest of us, without coffee coursing through our veins, were done! This picture really shows the extent of the exhaustion . . .

Posted at 11:19 AM in California, Food and Drink, Fun, Slowtravel, Travel | Permalink

Comments

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I just love it! Thanks for taking the time to post-it really looks like a great time was had by all! Sandi's martini is hilarious, and poor Ego, he was so tired he didn't even notice the stinky shoe!

Posted by: Cindy Ruth | October 26, 2008 at 02:59 PM