We had a pleasant dinner party. That Man and The Empress, who are as clever Marji deduced a married couple who own the store that I manage, came along with their daughter and her fiance. My husband and #2 son made dinner. This picture does not show the chicken, which was the main dish, but it does show the hot pepper sauce for Sighkey. Sort of. The small square dish in the front is fish sauce and the yellow dots in it are the seeds of hot peppers. Then there is herb-decorated melon, tomatoes, cucumbers in lime juice and rice vinegar with fresh mint. The baskets have sticky rice in them.
After dinner, when the guests had left, #1 daughter and Son-in-law went downtown to join the partying. #2 daughter went there when she arrived, not considering the possibility that her parents were waiting up for her at home and worrying about her. I’m just mentioning that. I did finally call her cell phone and she said, “I can’t hear you at all! Byee!” So I figured she was okay.
This is the reason for the excessive partying. It is the first football weekend of the season. Thursday was the junior high game (#1 daughter and Son-in-law went with his family), Friday was the high school game (#1 son went, and we skunked them, 43 to 0), and today is the college game. #1 son, #1 daughter, and Son-in-law are all going. Thus, they have decorated the car. Many people do that here. They also have their T-shirts, and Son-in-law has a silly hat as well.
We are playing the Trojans. I thought that was odd. I thought we always just played our neighboring states, but my kids are very scornful about my thinking that. I also thought that we would have an advantage, because those Californian boys would find our sauna-like Southern heat so enervating that they would not be able to run fast, or perhaps even to move at all. However, the weather has turned fall-like, clear and lovely and low 80s in temperature, so we confidently expect to lose dismally. This does not decrease the amount of partying that goes on.
Son-in-law’s parents happen to be in Los Angeles, and they intend to put on their school shirts and walk around the USC campus, flaunting our team. I think they will be disappointed, because as I recall, people in California do not care about football as much as we do.
Today, before tonight’s big game, we are going to the farmer’s market and then being tourists for a little while, then cooking out, and then my parents are coming over for coffee and cake. We expect to have lots of fun.