Monday, August 30, 2004

All we are is dust in the wind...

That's what I was singing in the early hours of Sunday morning, but more about that later....
On Saturday, we went to our first neighborhood Spielplatz Party. It was the third annual, but we missed the previous two because we were on vacation. It's basically a party that's arranged by the Swiss people who live in an apartment building a stone throw's away from us. They have a two-hour flea market for the kids, followed by a couple of hours of games (bocce ball, volleyball, and soccer), and then a pot-luck barbecue. We went for the games, and then we left for another party - the Severn 100th Birthday Party.
Jarl and Sharon somehow realized that the sum of their ages along with their children's ages equaled one-hundred years. So, they decided to hold a 100th birthday party. They had a very nice catered affair with enough meat for an army. I think I had a 2-3 lamb kebabs, a couple of pork chops, some shrimp, several bratwursts, and a potpourri of salads...and I'm not counting the Guiness, cigar, single-malt scotch, Jägermeister. I'm not joking...I ate about three days worth of food in a few hours, and I walked out of their house feeling like a Thanksgiving turkey. Jo Ann left a couple of hours before I did so that she could take care of the pets, but I ended up staying until 12:30 or 1:00 a.m. Andy and I rode home with our neighbors Mark and Sandra, and right before I was going to walk into the house, Andy talked me into going to check out if the Spielplatz Party was still going on. As it turned out, it was.
We sat down at the table with a few of the Swiss people, a guitar came out, and before I knew it I was singing Dust In The Wind by Kansas, Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd, and Winds of Change by the Scorpions. After an hour or so, Andy and I were told we should only speak in German, so we did (kind of). Andy left at about 2:30 a.m. because he was going to be playing tennis at 10:00. I stayed until about 3:30 a.m. when I began feeling a few raindrops on my head. By the end of the night, it had been decided that there would be another barbecue on November 6th when the Swiss people will decide who speaks better German - me or Andy. I better start studying since Andy has about a four-year head start on me.

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