Sunday, July 13, 2008
Today Patrick and I held a Bastille Day Party to celebrate summer, Patrick's cooking, and the French national holiday. The party was not strongly themed, but Patrick cooked old and new New Orleans food dishes, I used a French flag for the food name cards, and I heard people speaking French here and there throughout the afternoon. As people arrived, I took portraits in the back yard, but after a bit people arrived too quickly for me to keep up, and I took shots whenever I could, not necessarily portraits. Things moved so quickly that I didn't even get many photos of the food! Our apartment is tiny, and Patrick and I together know perhaps 3 times as many people as will fit in our place, so we weren't able to invite everyone we wanted to invite. Also, we didn't want the food to run out, so the chef enforced a fairly strict cap on the number, and about 60 people said yes to our evite. Patrick essentially cooked continuously since Tuesday (except for sleeping), planning carefully so that dishes like red beans finished earlier got better with a day or two of storage. Mom Ryan came over and was a big help chopping vegetables, and I also did some chopping, too. I made food name cards with the French flag as a background. One of the sacrifices people don't realize we make when we do parties like this is that we have to adjust our regular dinnertime meals during the days he cooks. Some days he is still cooking into the evening so we don't have the stove or oven or microwave or fridge space to spare. Other days he's exhausted. So we either eat out, which costs money and isn't all that healthy, or we eat in, trading quality for ease of preparation. The party went really well despite problems with the toilet and a light fixture. We both had a great time, and we think everyone else did, too. Patrick jokes that he will only do this once every 4 years, but I'll get to work on changing that idea after he's had about a month of rest. Thanks, everyone, for coming and bringing your favorite beverages. Photos at <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/frankfarm/sets/72157606272157321/">Bastille Day Party</a>. <a href="http://tinyurl.com/5vqwyj">Tony's photos</a>. <a href="http://tinyurl.com/5gpv32 ">Conrad's photos</a> (requires a Facebook account and you might possibly also need to be Facebook friends with him—I'm not sure).