There was a costume party tonight. We were told that it was to be nerd-themed, in honor of the birthday girl, one of the coolest nerds we know. I planned ahead on this one. This was the real reason I made the Osgood costume. This time my scarf was complete and I hand-drew a name badge. My neighbor went all out on an 11th Doctor costume, complete with fez, bowtie, and battery-operated sonic screwdriver. There was a picture taken of us next to each other, but it never got sent to me to post. Just before we left for the party, the Mr walked up in jammie pants and a bathrobe, with a towel around his neck. I was momentarily confused, and then I recognized Arthur Dent. I heartily approved of his costume. He makes a habit of being comfortable at times like this. It's his second bathrobe costume, after Hawkeye Pierce a few years ago. At this rate, it's just a matter of time before he goes somewhere as The Dude. Other notable costumes tonight: Zombie Mrs Claus, a Scuba Diver in a Tutu, a Reindeer in a Tutu, Black Swan (oddly, without a tutu), Gandalf, Link and another character from Zelda (they were a couple), Mr Clean, and a guy riding a dinosaur.
We played a very challenging game. There was a box of a few hundred cards describing characters, which could be anything from real people (Dolph Lundgren or David Hasselhoff, for example) to generic stereotypes (crazy cat lady or TED Talk presenter) to something just weird (a dog doing yoga). We selected five cards for each person there and threw them all together in a bowl. In teams, we went around, first trying to get our teams to guess as many as possible before an egg timer ran out. In the first round, it was like playing password, where you could describe it as you liked, as long as you didn't use the actual words in the topic. Then we threw all the cards back in the bowl and did it again, but this time, you could only use one word as a clue. The challenge was to remember what the characters were. For a final round, you had to do it as charades, no words at all. (Confession: I called out answers, but I never got up to read clues. My shoulder was wrecked by that time of the night, and eventually I had to move to the couch and lean backwards and mostly just watch and laugh.) This game was HARD. It was also fun and funny. I would definitely do it again, and hopefully next time I'll be able to stand up and do the hard part too.
Two wonderful details I can't leave out from tonight: first, I got to see River! Harvey's calico sister lives at this house, and she is so freaking beautiful it is almost criminal. She looks exactly like swaRalphie did at that age (my grandbaby who was not amused when a litter of kittens showed up in her bathroom in August). River was a little afraid when four of us showed up in her mommy's bedroom, trying to cuddle her. She wasn't prepared for that, and she ran under the bed. So when everyone else left, I sat down on the floor and talked to the room at large, until I was able to pull up the bedskirt and find her just out of reach, listening to me. I didn't reach for her or anything. I just calmly took her picture and told her I was happy that she found the right mommy for her (considering she very nearly came to live at my house). I also told her that her brother Harvey is doing well, and passed along greetings that he didn't know he sent. Second detail, the birthday cake was a work of art. It came from the gluten free bakery here in town, and it was chocolate turtle (caramel and pecans in the filling between layers). The icing was about a foot thick, and it was decorated beautifully like a TARDIS. Having that much black and blue food coloring means we all have Goth lips, and there will probably be consequences in 24-36 hours, but it was worth it. Great party, great food, and most of all great people.
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