"Party On, Dude"

July 1, 2007
Broad Brook, CT

We had another fun weekend, closing out the “graduation party season”. In a relatively small community, everyone knows many of the families of other graduates and since the girls have been involved in basketball for so many years, the parents have gotten close. So, there were several reciprocal party visits required. Not a big problem, as we always love a party!

On Saturday, we went to two graduation parties and a birthday bash as well. The first was at Mike and Laura Adams’ in Mansfield. Their daughter played basketball with Alicia and Britt. Since we had somewhere else to be later in the afternoon, we got there early and hung out for a while. Geri was trying to pace herself, so she opted to stay home for this one. Mike and I had been discussing various beers at Alicia’s party the week before, so I brought him an Anchor Steam “Old Foghorn”, a barley wine ale that I first had over 10 years ago at Burp Castle, a beer hall on the lower east side in Manhattan. He reciprocated with a Samuel Smith Ale, which was very good as well.

Mid-afternoon, we headed to the second party, at Mike and Lynn Bower’s. This was actually a combined graduation (their daughter, Allyson) and birthday (Mike’s 50th). Mike and Lynn live about ½ mile from Pat and Al, and they all got to know each other via, what else, the girl’s basketball.

For this party, Mike and Lynn had specifically asked Al and me to make margaritas, using our “famous” recipe. In reality, we both have different recipes, but we blended them together for the occasion. We used my basic “light” booze blend (1 part each of Triple Sec, Cointreau, and Grand Marnier; 3 parts Tequila; 9 parts mix) because we didn’t want anyone saying “1 tequila, 2 tequila, 3 tequila, floor” (my “high test” margaritas use 3 parts mix, 3 parts fresh lime juice, and a pinch of confectioner’s sugar to take the edge off). Al’s twist is that he likes to use cut up limes, lemons, and oranges in his mix as an alternative to my pinch of sugar, so he set up a cutting board and I set up a mixing table and we were on our way.

The party went very well and the margaritas were quite popular, so much so that quite a bit of beer and wine were left over (not a huge problem around here). As Al had predicted, all of the stress Lynn felt leading up to the event faded as people started to arrive and mingle. In fact, she was having such a good time that we had to pry her away from playing the “Guitar Hero” video game to get the food platters out!

As the evening was winding down, we created a new variation on the margarita recipe in Mike’s honor: the “Texas Hold ‘Em Margarita”. I’d just finished making the last pitcher, as the mix was all gone, but we had small amounts of the tequila and orange liqueurs left. So, we went “all in” on the last batch, which was a fine way to close out that phase of the party.

As the die-hards gathered on the deck after dark, Mike’s friend and golf buddy, Elliot, brought out a bottle of 1968 Boal Maderia, which made a couple of rounds. Since most of the remaining crowd is into Tawny Port, this was an interesting comparison. So much so that Mike broke out a bottle of their prized Burmeister 20 Year Old Tawny. Mike’s next-door neighbor shot home to bring a Patron Café Tequila for everyone to try, as well. This was a quite interesting sipper, with lots of coffee flavor, but not sweet like Kahlua. Unfortunately for him, I think he expected to bring some home after we tasted, but the order of the day was “keep ‘em comin’”, so all he got was the empty bottle. Welcome to the neighborhood!

As things were wrapping up, Geri and Pat headed home and Al and I helped with the clean-up. Al had provided extra trash cans and extra-large bags, and we loaded up the back of his pick-up since he can drop off trash in the dumpster where he works. We had a late-night roast beef sandwich (perfect hangover preventative) and left the place pretty well cleaned up, which was good since the Bowers’ had an 8:00 flight to Myrtle Beach for vacation the next day, and Lynn was back at the “Guitar Hero” competition.