Catchin' up (part deux) - New Years

As usual, I had left my planning till rather late in the game. But still, my friends came through. I ended up having five friends over, plus myself, for a quiet evening of nibbles, drinks, and scategories. OK, I love that game. I haven't played for a long time, but it was fun! (Right guys? It was fun! Right??? Hee hee.)

Best entry? For "Things in a park" that started with G, my friend Brad wrote "geriatric gentlemen." DANG! Double points for alliteration... AND awesomeness!!

Some of you have been asking about my New Year's prediction. Well, here's how it all went...

We counted down to midnight, then a hurredly passed out all manner of loud things - a gourd shaker intrument thingy, metal mixing bowls, pots and pot lids, and various ladels and wooden spoons. I took out my djembe drum. At midnight we all busted out of my door, a cacophany of clanging and shouting and banging and general hilarity. There was no co-ersion necessary. My friends (who are AWESOME, thankyouverymuch) were unstoppable. And by unstoppable, I mean that, as soon as we exploded out of my door, I remembered the four children all under the age of three who were no doubt sound asleep no more than 20 feet from the clangingbangingscreaming rowdieness that was our celebration. So down the walk between the two houses I ran, after my friends, whisper-yelling, "Guys! Babieees! BABIEEEES!!!!" But alas, it was no use. I was pretty much laughing too hard to be taken seriously, and the group was already halfway down the street running and banging and yelling HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! into the night. I think we scared a passing bus driver. Buah ha! It was great! And, despite my friend Brian's best efforts to make it happen, no men in white suits came to take me away! (Nyah nyah!)


And THEN... I learned a new method of opening champagne bottles, as we made our way out into my back alley for a New Year's toast. Why the back alley, you ask? Oh, becasue this champagne-bottle-opening method involved SLICING OFF THE TOP OF THE BOTTLE WITH ONE BIG SWACK OF A GIANT KNIFE. Not just the cork, people. The top of the entire bottle. It's supposed to be done with a sword, but a big-a$$ knife was all the guys had, so we did it with that. (Someone asked me afterward if I wasn't worried about little chunks of broken glass in my champagne. Hum. I hadn't really thought of that... I'm gonna go with believing that the force of the knife makes a clean, shatterless break. Yeah. That's it.)

So we toasted in the back alley, under the glow of someone's backyard New Years fireworks. It was a perfect way to ring in 2007!