Belated Birthday Bash

Okay, bash is a pretty strong word in the circumstances. It was more a quiet and enjoyable dinner with friends but I couldn't think of a word that fit for the alliteration as well as bash did. Cheese and Two Glasses of Wine spontaneously invited me over to dinner on Friday night. It was a week after the fact that but that couldn't be helped as they were not even in the same country as me on the real thing. It also happened to coincide with me having to fire two of my contract people. And that also coincided with the day their contracts were to end. What a day of coincidences! So I had to drop the kids off where I got them because I didn't want to keep the trucks they drove all summer as part of their jobs as keepsakes, although they asked if they could. It was a pretty hectic day from start to finish. There was a tour at the farm in the morning that I wasn't given much detail on what was to be covered so it felt more scrambly than usual. Then I took the girls for lunch to thank them for an excellent summer. They then presented me with gifts to thank me for being the "best job ever!" which was probably an understatement. We stopped to say goodbye to the dog and she got to pee in that exchange. Then it was off to drop them off. My original plan was to stop in on the dog one more time on the way across to give her a fifteen minute walk but not everything works out. I was leaving the last kid's house in good shape, I had lots of time to make the stop and get there on time. Then I hit the wall. The wall of traffic. For some reason on a Friday afternoon at quittin' time a construction crew thought it would be a marvelous idea to close two lanes of traffic on the busiest highway on the planet! It was not. It took me over an hour to traverse a section of road that generally takes under ten minutes. I was not super impressed. I made it an hour later than planned and had to abort the dog walk operation. I was greeted with a beer and much merriment. Before I knew it, food was served. It wasn't until later that I realized Cheese had substituted the starch of the meal with cauliflower. A shrewd move. It was a tasty treat and we had some more laughs and eventually I had to bid my hosts adieu and scurry back to walk the dog. A foreign responsibility until recently. She was absolutely wild despite having been out in the middle of the afternoon. I couldn't understand her wild ferocity. Then I realized it is rare that she is outside after dark. There are different smells and creatures that emerge when the sun goes down and this must have been very exciting and alluring to her. I will be ready the next time we have a night walk. Great dinner and crazy day, fun day though.