Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Party Time!

Good afternoon… and welcome. I see you brought your swimwear; and your towel – excellent. Grab a soda or some bottled water out of the ice chest over by that big oak tree in the middle of the deck, pull up a chair or take a dip. We’ll be firing up the barbeque in about an hour. We’re having tri-tip and chicken with some hotdogs for the kids. With your potato salad and the other sides everyone else brought, there’ll be plenty for everyone.

It’s way past time for a summer pool party. Here it is almost the middle of July and I have been so busy that I haven’t had time to think of these things. Yes, I have been in the pool many, many times so far this summer, and the barbeque has barely had time to cool off in between uses, but it’s just been me and one or two friends and occasionally the kids. This backyard was made for entertaining and it hasn’t even broken a sweat yet.
It’s too late to put much together for this weekend. Maybe an impromptu afternoon pool/barbeque/poker game, but not a “pull out all the stops” pool party. That takes about a week to pull off. I’m thinking the Saturday or Sunday after next. There is ample time to spread the word and prepare for the second annual summer bash. Usually about half those invited actually show up, but it pays to prepare for everyone – just in case nothing else is going on that day.

They way we do it is quite simple, really. Those whose last name begins with, say, A through E bring drinks; F through K bring a side; and so on. Usually I provide the grillin' materials, i.e.: tri-tip, chicken and hot dogs. Although I have many chairs and a couple of chaise lounges, I always recommend that my guests bring a folding chair because there simply aren’t enough to go around. And of course, I don’t provide towels. It is quite the cooperative production… and clean up? I haven’t been stuck with it yet and I have never had to ask for help.

Good friends are hard to come by and I have been blessed with more than a handful. It is an honor and a privilege… indeed a responsibility to extend my hospitality. I am happy to do it and humbled that I have been lucky enough to be able to supply such a tailor made venue. Yes, it that time of year – party time!

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

so where's the photo of you in your Speedos?

Michael K. Althouse said...

Now that IS funny!

LMAO

~mike

mckay said...

oh, my!

Michael K. Althouse said...

mck ~
speedo comment or pool pics??

Czarina said...

Lovely pool! Yeah...would love a speedo pics.

Ellen said...

Pardon my ignorance.... but what is tri-tip? I've never heard of it before.

And, yes.. all the ladies are looking forward to the speedo pic!

Lady Prism said...

aaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!....race you to the poool!!!!...yeeeeehaaaah!....

gaaawd!...I wanna' swim!...swim!...swim!!!...

Lady Prism said...

eeerrr....I think I just crashed your party!ha!ha!ha!...

I just read your post now and realized the pool invite was for your meatspace friends hee!hee!hee!

mckay said...

both?

awareness said...

Got my plane ticket! (I wish)

Would love to attend ...........love pool parties. I make a tasty Caesar salad ..... best this side of Sicily and I'll bring a pitcher of Sangria.

What kind of music will you be playing, Mike? I love impromptu dancing!

BTW........ I'm with Ellen .......what's tri-tip?

Biker Betty said...

Tri-tip is beef cut in a certain way. It's usually inexpensive and tastes really good. My husband & I love to marinate it before BBQing. I don't think it's available everywhere. We discovered it while stationed at Vandenberg AFB, CA (near Santa Maria). We can buy it in Colorado, yea!!

Have a great pool party.

X said...

I love me a good pool party. I better be getting an invite ;)

Belizegial said...

idyllic photos. lovely idea for a pool party. hope y'all have a fun summer hanging out

Saur♥Kraut said...

OH. Can I say how hideously jealous I am??? Here it is a beautiful summer and I still haven't been out to the beach more than twice, and haven't hit a swimming pool yet. *sigh* And I live in Florida!

mckay said...

can you all imagine mikey's blogger pool party? all us cyber vixens and mike. it'd rival hef's pool parties.

Michael K. Althouse said...

michelle ~ welcome to my blog. Sorry, me and speedos don't mix!

ellen ~ tri-tip is a super good cut of beef perfect for grillin. It is similar to London Broil.

Lux ~ you are welcome to crash my party, ther's always room for one more.

mck ~ you never know what the future holds, but there are a couple of things it doesn't - speedos fall into that category!

aware ~ there's not a lot of dancing room, but if you don't mind flirting with the edge of the pool, I guess maybe.

Classic Rock and see the link above.

bb ~ Yea, I read somewhere it's not available everywhere.

Katie ~ Done

Beliz... ~ Thank you, good to see you!

saur ~ Well... if you're ever in the area... BTW: It's supposed to be 101 tomorrow, 103 on Sunday!

mck ~ I like it... and playmate of the month??

mckay said...

ha! just as speedos are not in your future, i'd have to say that playmate status is not in mine, if the requirements are the same as hef's. funny thing though, my ex's first wife was a playboy playmate of the month back in the 80's.

Snaggle Tooth said...

was here n didn't comment earlier- cause:
I don't care what ya wear... really!

Did I mention (a zillion times) my severe allergies? I wanna jump in the pool, but gotta watch out for days of eye irritation, (no readin or drivin) n skin sores if the hives get bad! But I'll tell ya, I sure wanna jump in, cause lately we all seem to be havin a heckova heat wave in New England-

Never mind the CA wildfire home BBQ n the mid-west Prairie roast...

Are Cannon-balls allowed?