Putting Our Skills To Use

My sister, Beth, left this morning. #5 wants her to come back next week with her whole family, including her husband and Tall Nephew and Super-Tall Nephew. He has drawn up a sleeping plan for our house that involves CC and I sharing our queen-sized bed with my brother-in-law.

Beth put #5 to bed last night while we were at the party. He shared with her his design for a bacon hat and also told her that he is closer to the genetic makeup of a monkey than most people. He encouraged her to have another baby, but this time a girl, and then she could give the baby to us in exchange for him, and she would have five boys and we would have five girls. If she wouldn’t do that, he wondered if she would consider trading Slightly-Larger Nephew for #4.

Separately, #1 asked if Beth would trade Tiny Nephew for #5.

Regarding the party, in case you were wondering (and even if you weren’t), yes, it’s awesome to be at the party of the show that wins. I’ll wait while you imagine glamourous party scenes, like me doing shots with Matt Stone and Trey Parker.

(This is where the people that know me in real life are having fits of hilarity) I actually hate parties, but even I couldn’t hate this one. Here’s reality: I’m both anti-social and socially inept. I don’t drink anymore. A good party for me means I have a place to sit. Plus, I knew like six people there and none of them are famous.

These were the cool things about the party to me:

The front room was like a greenhouse; an entire building’s length of glass, and we watched the Tony broadcast on a ginormous screen that was mounted on the outside of a different building across the courtyard.

They had chrome toilets in the restrooms.

When the broadcast was over and the DJ started and the sound suddenly increased by about 90dB, we put our sound guy skills to use and unplugged the feed to the nearest speaker, making it almost possible to have a conversation where we were sitting.

Here’s a Tony hanging out on a coffee table with a drink. This happened more than once. Think about it: in a normal party situation, if you’re standing around, you always face the challenge of how to hold your plate and your drink and use silverware at the same time. What if you’re a moderately famous person who has an award to deal with as well? How do you eat and drink and shake hands? You set that mother down, that’s what you do.

For the record, the math that makes nine Tonys = nine vodkas is entirely subjective, and not highly recommended.

What It Is, or How Simon Discredited My Mother.

I’m a little afraid to post this. My mom might get mad. More than anything, I can’t stand it when my mom is mad at me. No wait, I can’t stand it when she’s disappointed in me more. But mad isn’t good either.

I was seeking the appropriate link to serve as proof of the proper name of the Mystery Utensil when Simon’s comment came through about it being a butter pick. And I was like, yeah, it could be a butter pick. And then I couldn’t find a link to prove what my mom told me it was.

But I totally found a link that says it’s a butter pick. Check it out.

Mom told me it was a pickle server.

Maybe I heard it wrong. Maybe it’s my fault. “Pick” and “pickle” are so very close. Or it could be an intergenerational game of telephone; I believe this was my great-grandma’s. Perhaps through the generations “butter pick” morphed into “pickle server”.

Or, maybe it’s multi-functional. Because I found this link to a very similar item that, while different, is quite clearly labeled as a pickle spear.

While I am convinced that it would work quite nicely as a butter pick, it also is perfect to spear pickles:

Which is how I used it on Memorial Day. Which made me happy. So there.

Meanwhile, I discovered that it is possible to get many other nifty utensils in my silver pattern, including a bacon fork.

Simon, if my mom yells at me, I’m sending her your way.