3 hours to go

This weekend finds us hundreds of miles from home to attend an "engagement party" for my oldest niece and her fiancee.  They're getting married next month, on the beach.

This weekend may be the last in the latest flurry of "real life" that has more or less consumed us over the last few weeks. 

As expected, the heat is already intense, and the sweat is profuse.

As expected, there is a general sense of chaos three hours to go from the official start time of the party.

Most unfortunately, the hostess is bed-ridden today after puking her guts out ever since last evening.  Fortunately, my wife was on hand to step into the breech.  That meant taking their mother shopping early this morning for shoes and a new dress for the party.  Shopping with Mom, oh lord have mercy.

The ice finally arrived so we can start icing down the 250+ beers on hand for the party, but fortunately there was an extra fridge out in the barn to get a head-start.  There is massive kitchen activity:  cutting the cooked potatoes in preparation for a potato salad, cutting avocadoes for the guacamole, tomatoes, celantro, where are the rice and beans?  Oh, they had to hire a separate cook to prepare those.

David is out back smoking 30lbs of sausage and the smell is intoxicating.  This calls for a beer.  The brisket was smoked yesterday too, by yet another contractor, but still hasn't arrived.    What?  Nobody brought the tequila for the margarita machine?  Yikes!

The tables aren't ready!  The rain soaked them.  The swing isn't done.  There's still too much dogshit all over the yard! 

A crowd of 100+ is expected.  That means that about 200 will show up, according to one who should know.

The boys have the sound system cranked up and going.  Tunes help.

This morning we had a 30-minute long downpour, and now the humidity is oppressive.  But that's where the beer comes in.

Me?  I'm just chillin' out a bit in the cool air conditioning after a few pieces of sausage and a beer.  Gotta save my strength.  I'll need it for later.  


More later.  Maybe.  And maybe some pictures.