{"id":4882,"date":"2003-12-14T22:04:19","date_gmt":"2003-12-15T05:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=4882"},"modified":"2003-12-14T22:04:19","modified_gmt":"2003-12-15T05:04:19","slug":"study_in_contra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/12\/14\/study_in_contra.html","title":{"rendered":"Study in contrasts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday Afternoon<\/u>
\nKatherine’s friend from day care, Thomas, was having a birthday party at Nathan’s Funstastic Fun<\/a>, an amazing indoor amusement park (complete with bounce house, ball room, ferris wheel, train, arcade, teacups, and a cafeteria of birthday party tables). Three hours of noise and rides and screaming kids and running around like maniacs.<\/p>\n

Katherine had a faboo time. At first, she wanted to go on all the rides by herself. She’s always been a daredevil with roller coasters and other thrill rides, and showed it here, too, finding “The Whip” to be a particular laugh-inducing indulgement.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, after the cake and gift exchange, she spent the rest of the outing with Thomas, going multiple-multiple times on the train. And on the Whip. And on the slide. Much fun.<\/p>\n

In the arcade, she showed herself particularly adept at stomping spiders, earning max tickets multiple times.<\/p>\n

My sole regret is having not brought a camera. Or, I suppose, earplugs. (Doyce called me mid-visit, to inquire about a gift for Margie. “Are you standing on a freeway or something?” was his initial inquiry.)<\/p>\n

Saturday Night<\/u>
\nMargie and I did a “fancy dinner” for the folks who successfully bid on it <\/a>at our church’s Harvest Auction a year-plus ago.<\/p>\n

I went from screaming kids to formal dinner service. Though there was plenty of clapping and laughing and enjoyment along with it.<\/p>\n

A menu can be found here<\/a>. The full dinner, across all courses, ran about five-plus hours. Everyone was raving about it, calling out Margie for applause after each course. I cannot express how proud I am of the job she did.<\/p>\n

(And, yes, I served as sommelier and sous chef and waitstaff<\/a>. So I’ll take my minor bows. But Margie did 100% of the planning and 99% of the prep and at least 75% of the work, so she deserves the major kudos.)<\/p>\n

The party of eight got an incredible deal for their $215 bid. The raw materials went for pretty close to that, plus labor and planning. Margie’s goal was to do a dinner that nobody would ever serve to guests because it would be too much work for the host and hostess. And she succeeded magnificently. The various folk there — none of which were strangers to opulence or fine dining — all agreed it was one of (if not the) most incredible dinners they’d ever had.<\/p>\n

Good work, love. <\/p>\n

Now we just need to deal with the leftovers (food, wine) before we head to California for the holidays …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Cheese -- and, of a mercy, Kay is well beyond the target demographic or desiring to go there. \u00a0Still, it's kind of interesting watching the evolution of the iconic mascot. 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