Boxes, Pork, and other double entendres

And so I'm back at Starbucks. I got home from PorkFest at about 3am, drugged the heck out of my recently-sobered-up ass around 4 when I went to bed (because I'm on overnight call tonight, so sleeping in would actually be a huge plus), still woke up at 8:30. Damn it. And honestly? A little hungover this morning. I never get hungover. I'm also never nearly as much of a lightweight as I was last night, although, let me tell you, I was apparently quite amusing...I think it was a combination of not having really eaten all day and being pretty dehydrated from a day of fussing around the house. Oh, and possibly the shot of moonshine (no chaser - Claud, you would've been so proud).

So earlier in the day. my Aunt and I hit the place pretty hard. What we unfortunately didn't do was unpack a single damn box. But we restored a necessary order and organization. You remember the wall to wall boxes in the living room and the inaccessible office? It's better.

The front room actually has furniture in it.


You can make it all the way into the office now. Like, if you need to hook up the cable, or perhaps install a dog door.


I think I neglected to upload the corner that's piled three deep and six high with boxes of books, but, whatever....

We piled all the kitchen stuff on the dining room table, because there's no room for it to happen in the kitchen, but at least you can find the dining room furniture.


The dog continues to find places to hide, though. Can you find Waldo Maggie?


(PS - how much do I love that fireplace?)

Oh my gosh, we went over and Maggie met Sparrow's dog this morning, too. Maxine (the dog) is this tiny little bundle of adorableness. And I'm not an overwhelming fan of tiny dogs, but she's just awesome, and wow, the portability of her is a lot of fun. She and Mags seemed to do okay. Maggie might stay with them tonight while I'm on call, we'll see.


Bedroom's still tiny, but, nicely functional. Still needs screens so I can open the damn windows at night.

The Gardenias are in bloom, though. Aren't they lovely? Notice how I'm not showing you the fancy vase they're in, which is...um...a Starbucks cup...

So after a long day of rearranging what the movers left, I finally showered and put on whatever clothes I could actually locate without looking too grungy, and headed off to Mike's for PorkFest 2008.

Which was a big hit.

Around 40 people showed up, I think, and there was a wide assortment of pork-related dishes.


(Note the centerpiece. He.)

Everyone brought some take on cooked pig. There were pigs in a blanket, pigs' feet, pork tenderloin, collards with fatback, several salad-with-bacon variations, Mike's (in)famous South Georgia Super Bowl dip (still not sure what's in the stuff, but I could mainline it), Mac and Cheese with bacon (i.e., "Fancy Mac 'n' Cheese"), prosciutto with melon, some sort of potato casserole, etc, etc, etc, and a LOT of high quality barbecue.


The overflowing table.


And of course, there were the desserts. I picked up some chocolate bars with bacon in them (actually not bad), and these local cupcakes that still use lard frosting (orgasmic), and the absolute best was Mike's take on the classic Elvis sandwich, which was peanut butter, bananas, Nutella, and...well...bacon, then pan-fried like a grilled cheese. Actually quite, quite good. One of the third years and his girlfriend (who I adore, but hey, she's a chemist) made this awesome cake for one of the fourth years who just graduated and part of the point of this party was to bid him farewell.

It was red velvet cake inside.


Very reminiscent of Steel Magnolias and the scene with Tom Skerrit and Shirley MacLaine and the groom's cake. Ain't nothin' like a good piece of ass.

Hmm. That was an unintentional segue...


I don't know exactly how Mike's window got broken, but we have several very amusing pictures of him trying to fix it...

Overall a good time was had by all. Or at least by most. Sometime after all the kids went home, the moonshine (S'cuse me, corn whiskey) came out, and wow, I haven't been that drunk in a while. Which was a collective problem. Mostly for PenguinShrink, who was on call last night, when we got the brilliant idea to prank call the Crisis Pager.

Oh, poor thing. I'm not sure how exactly I got to be the one doing the calling, but we identified ourselves to the operator as Lola Manlove (which is a surprisingly common last name around here, which we'd been talking about earlier). And she gets on the line and we're all screaming - at one point Mike had the phone and was talking about how his wife wouldn't have sex with him anymore and was she commitable - no, really, folks, we get calls like this - and the whole crowd is yelling, and my pre-assigned part at this point was to stay in the background and yell "Hell, no, I ain't touchin' that itty-bitty thing anymore, you bastard!" Until Mike couldn't keep his composure any longer and handed me the phone, and of course I'm in hysterics and poor Peng was like, "Ma'am, you have to slow down, I can't understand you. You're going to have to calm down, ma'am." Which was when I finally caught my breath and was like "no, no, it's Kate." And there was this pause....and she was like...."Kate, are you drunk?" To which I could only answer..."Yes. A lot." There was another pause, and she says, "Mike has a couch, right?"

I assured her that I could contract for safety for the evening. Meanwhile Mike's in the background yelling "go ahead, try it, commit me!!"

Oh, my God, I can't even tell you how funny we thought we were.

We eventually passed around the phone and hopefully amused both her (note to self...need to call her today....) and the second year she was on call with.

This is the sort of debauchery that happens when you get a bunch of drunken psychiatrists together, my friends.

And fret not, I stayed put until I was good and sobered up, which turned out to be interesting in whole other ways, because I ended up meeting a very different set of Mike's friends (er, his friends' friends?) including one who promises he can do wonders for my hair. I'm so going after this guy because, a, he was such a gentleman and didn't even comment on the length of my roots, and two, Matthew, you know I've always got your back and am looking to find more of the Gays for you. Plus, what sane straight woman passes up a good gay hairdresser? Anyway.

So I'm caffeinated and fed now and feeling a little better. Planning on more or less taking the day off, since I have to be at State Hospital at 8 tonight for overnight call. Maybe there will be a more successful nap involved in my day. And possibly another trip to Target. Back to my routine...I love it.