Friday! (posted by Ann)

Here's the weather for the boat delivery trip tomorrow. I can tell that no one has been thinking about warm, dry weather. I hope you'll all feel bad when I'm wet and cold tomorrow!

The pasta party was really something else. I agreed to cook, one of the other Moms agreed to host. Well, I arrived at the address to find a 10 acre estate with one of those gates that you have to be buzzed into, and a house that was just huge. Absolutely huge. This house has three kitchens - one in the basement for entertaining, one on the main level, and a "family kitchen" in one of the wings. The basement kitchen is much nicer than mine, with huge SubZero refrigerator, double ovens, Wolf range with grill, burners, griddle, and warming drawers (2). The rest of the basement would fit my entire house - no joke. Theatre with seating for 12, exercise room, storage, game room, wine cellar, Japanese tea room, sitting areas, bar, and I'm not done. They had 6 tables that would seat 10 each to seat the boys - and there was still room in the basement to walk around. Outside you could see the glass house with the heated pool in it, koi ponds, and beautiful landscaping. Wow. Just Wow.

Steve told me later that the son had a flat screen TV and speakers built into the tile in his shower.

So I came in my jeans and Chuck Taylor's with loads of pasta in aluminum disposable pans, and got to heat it all up in the three ovens. The Mom and her son were really nice, but she admitted to having never turned on two of the ovens before and I had to show her how. I don't think I could use that many ovens either!!

We had a great time, and the boys ate an amazing amount of pasta, bread, and brownies. One thing I was surprised by - and unprepared for - was how many of them were vegetarian. Good thing the other Mom had a stash of penne pasta and Prego, or they'd have been down to salad and bread.

In other news, here's a picture of the blue baby sweater in use. The baby, Brian, really adds to the cute quotient!

It's off to Europe for me on Monday, and I'm still trying to figure out what to pack for a Monday through the next Wednesday trip that has business casual, dinner party, regular business as well as museum/shopping so that I don't have a thousand pounds of luggage or ten pairs of shoes. Wish me luck!

And my last thing - Charlotte sent me pictures of her last visit today, and in them was my absolute favorite picture of me sailing this summer. I look happy, don't I? Well, why not, I was on the boat with good friends on a summer day - what's not to love?