A Halloween Housewarming

Halloween Housewarming Party: Friday, 10/31/03

First, the back story:

On Thursday, October 23, we actually moved in: four guys and a truck came from Gentle Giant at 2:30 in the afternoon, and they departed--furniture in place and boxes stacked high and deep in the dining room--at 6:00. Robert and I immediately grabbed a Zipcar, ignored the boxes everywhere, and drove to Somerville to eat homemade dumplings at Wang's (recommended by Ining and Eric).

On Friday, Mom and Dad arrived as usual, and we unpacked many boxes. We hung pictures to get them out of the way, set up the futon on which they'd be staying that night, organized the deck and tied things down against winter winds, organized kitchen cabinets, cleaned floors, and unpacked more boxes.

On Saturday and Sunday, we made a few trips back to the old apartment to get our remaining belongings, not moved by the movers--one unpacked computer and monitor, the model ship I made Robert in 1994, the food from the refrigerator and freezer, some hanging clothes that we hadn't wanted to crush by packing, and two full-length mirrors hanging on the wall.

On Tuesday morning, garbage day at our new place, we tossed out lots of emptied, cut-open boxes and several full boxes of packing materials and garbage. That night, we went back to our old apartment for the last time. Ben and Lise came with us to take a floor lamp and an electronics stand that we had no further use for, and they helped us wrestle three tall bookcases, two extra kitchen chairs, and an extension ladder down the stairs. We were going to put them out for the garbage, but the three crazy men who live on the first floor decided they wanted everything, so we just left them--sweatil, crazily, and baldly--the ladder and furniture.

On Wednesday, we spent the morning hanging speakers and laying ethernet cable, and then we went out for lunch and returned our keys. We were officially renters no longer!

On Thursday and Friday I unpacked the last of our boxes, organized more stuff in the kitchen, went food shopping, cleaned up the house, and prepared for our party. Along the way I got trapped in the front of the house by the giant bean bag chair, freaked out because I had no heavy cream and then again because the dessert I used it to make didn't set (never again will I try a non-Rose--especially a non-Rose no-bake--pie; why, oh why, don't I learn!), had two disasters when the fridge door shelves--loaded with bottles and condiments--fell off, and got Robert and myself into our costumes. By 8:04 p.m. on Halloween night, we were actually ready for our 8:00 housewarming party.

The main event:

We were Trinity and Neo from Reloaded, but since Robert didn't have sunglasses and I kept having to take off both my sunglasses and my black gloves (Trinity never was much of a one for the kitchen, apparently) in order to do things around the house, we looked rather pathetic and uncostumed for most of the night. We actually didn't get a good picture of either of us, but since we'll be reprising our costumes next Wednesday for opening night of Revolutions, we'll make sure to get the sunglasses and take the pictures then.

It was a great party--we were glad to relax a little and have our friends around us, and everyone admired our home and deck. Present were:

Howard (loosely costumed, with a mask, as the alien invaders from Aquateen Hunger Force),
John (in vaguely pirate, vaguely Nick Knight, gear--the latter especially when holding his large bottle of blood, er, red wine),
Kip (dressed as a frat boy, which, shockingly, he once actually was),
Kip's friends Nick (Nomar) and Aaron (a chef),
Valentina (in her traditional witch hat and wig, yet with pieces of sandpaper stapled to her dress, as a sandwich this year),
Jef (oh, ask him, and he'll explain his costume to you--or see if he makes an appearance in Revolutions too),
Ining and Erik (themselves),
Debbie (Little Red Riding Hood after a successful encounter with the wolf),
and Ghaz (pinata boy) and Alyssa (party girl).

Pearl apparently left her house around 8:30, yet never arrived, and we're unsure what long involved story she'll have. Ben and Lise--Staypuff Marshmallow Man and Tinkerbell (or so they claim--their costumes remain unverified)--had a long involved story of their own about why they never made it, so we'll have to see whether Pearl's story tops theirs.

We ate:

prosciutto, figs, and goat cheese,
tons of cheese and crackers,
red pepper spread bruschetta that Kip brought,
awful green Pirate Booty with kale, and yummy vinegary potato chips,
sundried tomato hummus,
honey-mustard-wasabi dip with veggies,
olive spread,
spinach and mixed green salad (Mona's salad) w/blue Basque cheese, sliced pears, gingered pecans, and balsamic dressing,
four-color pasta salad w/shredded chicken, salami, fresh mozzerella, cherry tomatoes, scallions, Italian dressing, and cucumber,
vegetarian three-cheese lasagna w/mushrooms and onions,
tons of candy (including Halloween Peeps and Halloween Lindt truffles and everything in between),
oatmeal raisin cookies,
macademia nut chocolate pie-bars,
Rose's pumpkin pie with gingery pecans,
and a failed non-Rose dried cranberry and walnut cream pie.

We drank hot spiced spiked cider and various other beverages, hard and soft. We revelled in our iPod DJ station, since the rest of the stereo was not yet set up--Robert's next project--and I loved preparing food in our new, beautiful, spacious kitchen.

The End

(of the move-in story, and the beginning of life in our new home)

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Created: 11/01/03. Last Modified: 11/01/03.