A wedding and an open House

Jeff got married in November in Washington DC the week before Thanksgiving so we stayed back East and enjoyed Thanksgiving in Boston. We ate out several times. I always thought it was just the waiters at Durgin Park in Fanueil Hall that were rude and/or blunt with customers, but we discovered some other places in Boston that recruit from the same waiters school apparently. I also discovered that the majority of the cab drivers come from Haiti. We had a number of them from Haiti while we were there. I asked one why someone from Haiti would come to live in Boston; the summers I can understand because it is hot and humid, but the winters? He could give me no good explanation although he started with a "my brother's cousin's friend" sort of explanation which seemed reasonable. But why did his brother's cousin's friend go there in the first place?

We got home and began preparing for an open house at our house for Jeff. The first part was a reunion of the three amigas who bake cakes, torts, and other desserts: Sydney, Dallas, and Bebe. The house began to fill up with the fruits of their efforts, filling the refrigerator, the garage refriegerator (yes we have two of them), and the freezer. I was trying to make the backyard look good but we had some setbacks. We were visited by raccoons several nights who dug up large portions of the lawn. One night after they visited, it looked like someone had played a bad round of golf and left a lot of divots scattered throughout the fairway. One end actually looked like it had been roto-tilled. We made repairs as best we could but were uncertain about what to do with the 35 sf or so of thoroughly tilled ground. We were thinking a plywood board but that seemed tacky. I went to Home Depot a few days before the event for plywood thinking astro turf might look ok in the evening light. I discovered some cheap sod that was less expensive than either plywood or asto turf and bought it instead. I put it in the next day which was the day of the open house. After I was done, I asked Jeff what he thought, and he said, "It looks like a bad haircut, Dad." Frankly, I thought it looked more like a cheap toupee.

We rented these tables and associated umbrellas and chairs and $500 of heaters so we could put people outside knowing the inside of the house was of modest capacity. We bought four or five dozen candles for the tables and center decorations. The day before it was raining; in fact the morning of the event it was raining lightly. The delivery truck with the lawn equipment arrived as did the moment of decision - tables or no tables? If you keep them, you pay full price. If you send them back, you pay half but you don't have them to use. We settled on a scaled down version. As it turns out, it rained right up until the event started and five or six people went outside. I estimate the cost of tables, chairs, heaters, and decorations at about $200 per guest who actually used them.

The bride and groom decided to go out during the afternoon while we were approaching the event which was fine. Except 45 minutes before it was scheduled to start they were still gone. I called and they were at a fast food place. They got home about 15 minutes before the open house was to start with no concerns whatsoever. Of course, one of the reasons they had no concerns was because they were wearing yellow tennis shoes under the wedding dress and below the tuxedo. Would you be concerned if you were willing to wear yellow tennis shoes to an event like this? Yellow patent leather I might be able to understand, but yellow tennis shoes told me I was not on the same page as they were. However, they were happy and they were married.

The people came, they brought gifts, they ate our cake, they drank our punch, they lingered, and there was enough room in the house. They weren't concerned about the tables outside, they didn't see the cheap grass toupee, and they thought it was a nice event. So now that that is over, what am I going to do about the raccoons?