June 25, 2010 - Jamestown, RI

Mom and Dad arrived at Alena's house in Somerville shortly after midnight. As we waited for them to arrive Alena set me to work frosting Around the World cookies, a treat she designed for our welcome home party this weekend. She had already filled in the continents with green colorflow frosting. So all I had to do was cover the oceans with blue, without using so much frosting that I caused incidents of global warming. There was one close call with Florida, and a few of the islands of the Caribbean lost some beachfront property, but I soon got the hang of it. Of course my production rate was 50% of hers, but who's counting?

After my folks arrived we spent a few hours catching up while being entertained by Alena's very energetic kitten. Eventually we all crashed. I didn't sleep that well, finding myself completely unused to the sounds of the city. Or maybe it was because it was my first night apart from Sten in over three years. In any case, at 6:30 I found myself nursing my first cup of coffee as I went through my professional wardrobe trying to figure out what would be of most use to me now. I eventually abandoned the exercise, deciding instead to bring my formal wear and shoes down to Rhody instead. Now I just need to find employment that requires me to wear old bridesmaid dresses.

Around noon my parents and I piled in the car and headed down to Rhode Island. Of course before leaving town we had to stop at Mike's Pastries in the North End to pick up a few lobster tails for dessert. Back in Rhody, we swung by Suzy's to pick up Sten, who had been busy making a small mountain of chicken satay for the party tomorrow. And then we headed over to Jamestown, where my folks would be spending the night with Bill and Laurie.

We arrived at Bill and Laurie's house to find their kitchen staged for the evening's lobster feast. The counter was lined with serving bowls, each of which was labeled: dip, nuts, chips, etc. And in the bottom of the fridge were a dozen lobbies, just waiting for the pot. We found just enough room to squeeze in the bottles of Prosecco my folks brought with them. As we prepped a few veggies for the grill the rest of the party began to arrive. Our friends Sig and Patricia had made the trip up from Baltimore for the weekend, and Patti, Jeremy and their beautiful son Gavin were enroute from New York.

With so many mouths to feed there was only one man for the job. Nobody, and I mean nobody, can cook and process a mess of lobsters like George Kates. The man is a machine. Ably assisting him was Sten's sister. With Bill manning the grill and me whipping up Dark and Stormies and Moscow Mules there were plenty of hands to keep everyone fed and watered. It was a fun evening and a great start to the weekend.