Initiation weekend

We spent Memorial Day weekend cooking, serving, and cleaning up! That's right, it was our first official gathering. Somehow having friends and family witness the fact that we truly are homeowners makes it more real? Maybe?

At any rate, chickens were smoked, vegetables were skewered, and salads were consumed, all in the name of the unofficial start of summer. There were a few moments when I had to remind myself that we were sitting on OUR deck and that we get to live in the house permanently (or for the next 5, 10, or more years).



Enough peppers? Yes, actually, we're still eating leftovers



A did learn a few interesting things this weekend:

-We have more friends with children than I had originally thought.
-I can say that I am happy that none of those children are our responsibility on a daily basis. Whew.
-People can be hungry for dinner at four, five, or six in the afternoon. I think it has something to do with the anticipation of someone else preparing food.
-There actually may be such thing as buying too much beer. I think we may have enough beer leftover to last through the rest of the summer.
-Spending two days cooking and cleaning is exhausting. I'm glad we did it, but I am in no rush to host another party.

Food holiday!

This has nothing to do with our adventures in home-ownership, except for the fact that being away "on holiday" prevented any progress on the house for the past week....

We repeated our honeymoon in Jamaica last week, and it turned into a bit of a foodie adventure. :) I have been having serious problems remembering how to find food for myself after a week of fantastic food from the Couples staff!

One main reason for returning to Jamaica was that we were walking around in a bit of post-wedding haze two years ago (wow, has it really been almost 2 years?) and wanted to make sure that the resort wasn't a figment of our imaginations. It does exist. It really was that much fun the second time around.

At any rate, being the quasi-foodies that we are (I've always wondered if there is some sort of certification one must go through in order to officially call oneself a foodie?), we spent more time than I would like to admit trying to determine ingredients. We were again impressed by the quality and consistency (meaning good throughout our stay, not texture) of Couples's food, even on the buffets.

Who knew that so many interesting things could be made with pumpkins, beans, and jerk seasonings? I won't recap the entire week's worth of food adventures here, but of particular note: scotch bonnet ice cream (how did they do that!?), various chutneys and sauces, and mustard/cheese English muffins that I will try my best to recreate. I also found a pumpkin lasagna that almost had me jumping out of my seat to locate whomever was holding on to the recipe.

Aside from eating, we received a two-on-one tennis lesson with an amazing pro, and I became a scuba school drop out (while my husband found another hobby). We also met some interesting fellow guests with a variety of interests and opinions. I'm already feeling "homesick" and am actually having a hard time looking at pictures of the resort, knowing that some of last week's new friends are still there on vacation. :( I hope that the pouting (and the peeling sunburn) eases sometime soon. The fact that I am no longer in Jamaica really is a "situation".

All decked out

The first "room" we decided to tackle was the deck, in large part because there was no wallpaper to contend with (more on that later). The first purchase was a grill, which was a huge improvement over the grill that we had beaten to death at our rental. You know, a grill that works is a huge step up from a grill that really doesn't work. Go figure.

After the (re)introduction of grilled meat into our lives, we decided that we needed a place to sit outside and eat the grilled meat. We looked at patio sets at Home Depot, Lowe's, JC Penney, Target.... Eventually we went on a field trip with my husband's sister to the Great Indoors (a very dangerous place for a new homeowner) and found a set that we liked. I unfortunately wasn't quite ready to make the commitment.

The following weekend we went to Sears (a sister company to Great Indoors, I learned) and revisited the set we found the previous week. We met a very nice couple who told us that if we purchased the set online, we would save an extra 10%. Does Sears not want to keep its brick and mortar stores open? Sounds like a question for one of my MBA courses. At any rate, we were too slow in placing our online order and missed the 10% that we had heard about. The next day I found a reference to a "midnight madness" sale that Sears was having if I waited until the following evening! Yay.

Fast forward about a week and a few large boxes were delivered to our house.

I'd have to say I was completely impressed by Sears's home delivery! I received two automated phone calls - one a few days after my purchase confirming my items and a second the night before delivery with my "window". Speaking of delivery windows, mine was 10:45 am - 12:45 pm, and the delivery guys were in and out by 11:30! We spent the next couple of hours assembling the patio set.

Large box containing the table top. I think I blinked.

Ah, assembled table.

The deck actually feels like a nice place to hang out. Despite the fact that it wasn't necessarily warm on Saturday night, we hosted dinner (with grilled meat of course) and officially welcomed our furniture to the deck. Dinner, as an aside, was the best executed meal I think we've ever put together. There was no reheating of poorly timed vegetables or anything on that order. I think we made the deck furniture proud.