What a great weekend. I woke up a bit on the early side Saturday morning, but felt (relatively) rested. I showered, shaved, put on "around the house" clothes, and proceeded to the kitchen to prepare the dips and foods to take to the party. After having made the dips, I sent a text message to the hostess to ask what time people were going to be showing up, and then I drank my coffee and relaxed.

heartening - (adjective) -- Inspiring confidence or hope.

I left my house around 12:30, to go pick up my date for the party. We arrived and many people were already there. (But the party was not yet in full swing). This would classify us as fashionably late, I guess. After everybody was introduced to everybody, we were served Sangria, and then moved outside to the front yard where we were playing a game (two game sets) of BAGS, where you throw bean bags and try to land them in the hole of a board that is rougly 8-10 feet (or more) away from you; stopping intermittently for rainfall.

Originally, this was to be a POOL PARTY, but weather was less-than-cooperative for such things as swimming (not to mention -- not really WARM ENOUGH out for a pool party.) We then moved inside for a while, and visited and grilled the meat under a covered area in the back yard.

Around that time, people started asking "What was in the Sangria", and after hearing the AMOUNTS and TYPES of ALCOHOL they used (much much of it), and realizing I had ENJOYED three of these within about two hours, and had not eaten yet today, I decided it was a good idea for me to cease further alcohol consumption.

The food was extremely good, other than some of the salads having a LOT of mayonnaise, (which I do not particularly care for). The taco (six layer dip as opposed to seven) dip was obliterated, and the Artichoke Parmesan Jalapeno dip was hit very hard as well. People asked for the recipe for the Artichoke Parmesean jalapeno dip, so... I am sharing the recipe for one of the dips I made, and including the link to the site (hoping that satisfies copyright issues).

Artichoke, Jalapeño and Parmesan Dip
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
4 pickled jalapeño peppers, seeded and finely chopped
1 (6-ounce) jar marinated artichoke hearts, drain, reserve marinade
2 teaspoons Tabasco green jalapeño sauce
Kosher or coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1. Use a food processor with metal blade to finely grate Parmesan cheese. Add the cream
cheese, mixing well. Transfer cheese mixture to a mixing bowl.
2. Chop jalapeño peppers in processor, add drained artichoke hearts and process just until
coarsely chopped. Add artichoke/jalapeño mixture and the jalapeño sauce to cheese mixture.
Mix well. If needed, add small amount of additional marinade to obtain desired consistency.
Salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
3. Serve with a variety of crackers or chips.
Makes 16 servings or yields 2 cups.
Nutrition Facts (per 2 tablespoon serving): 82.8 calories; 72% calories from fat; 6.8g total fat;
21.1mg cholesterol; 151.4mg sodium; 70.6mg potassium; 2.0g carbohydrates; 0.7g fiber; 0.2g
sugar; 1.4g net carbs; 3.9g protein.
Copyright Hope Pryor, please see Terms of Use. -- cooksrecipes.com

After we ate, some of the guests departed, and those that stayed (after-party PARTY crowd) set up one of the tables for a game of SPOONS. (Only the person who does not grab a spoon -- has to take a drink (from the alcoholic beverage they have). After the game of SPOONS died out (a "break" from the game -- never re-commenced in game). We were sitting outside (gazeebo) and had cake and desserts. After it started to get dark, we moved to the other room and they set up the ROCKBAND game and people were singing and having fun.

Around 11:30, two of the guests (the Guest of Honor and his wife) were ready to go home, and were going to call a cab, but since I had not been drinking for (nearly five hours now), I offered to drive them home. My date waited at the party house (which was great because she felt comfortable with my friends), and I returned to the party around midnight (round trip was not so close but that is ok). They were now playing a trivia game (Forget the name of it) on either the wii or the Playstation, I am not sure which.

Their game ended, and we visited for a while. Around 1:00AM, the hostess was tired, the one other guest left was planning to crash in their guest room, and the host had disappeared much earlier in the evening (around eleven I think it was). I drove my date home, and we talked on her front porch for another half hour, I kissed her goodnight, and then I drove home.

This morning, one of the people I drove home earlier texted me to ask if they had dropped keys in my truck. I went out to check and sure enough, there was indeed a set of keys in the floorboard of the front seat. They told me they were meeting with the host and hostess of the party (and one of the other attendees) for brunch, and asked me if I would like to join them. I went for "brunch". Anyway, when I get there, being FATHER'S DAY there was a bit of a wait-for a table-time, and I found the partiers at the bar... drinking SANGRIA (again). The eggs were undercooked (I received over easy instead of over-medium --gag). The bacon was GOOD. The coffee was ... meh. For $8.95 I feel like it was kinda not so great. (IHOP would have been better and cheaper).

Even with that, the company was good, and I was happy not to have spent the morning by myself. After brunch, we went back to the HOST/HOSTESS house and helped clean up. Then they set up the BAGS game and were playing (and drinking -- again). I visited with them a while, drank water, and then excused myself. I went home and napped on the couch for a while.

Fun times.

I called my date (for whom I have yet to choose a nickname to use in posts such as this), and talked to her for a while... and then I played online and read up on the news.

That sums up my weekend.