I'll be off for a day or two this week and so
have doubled up this packet. Also despite having
had a fullish day, I'm not sleepy.

Swisher's friends Scotty and Rose have an annual
Independence Day party on one of the adjacent
weekends, and he has invited me along a couple
times. This year the timing was right.

Up to 150 people were expected, but despite the
lack of weather challenges, fewer than half that
showed up - this was fine as far as I could see,
as it became a tranquil and friendly occasion
instead of a crowded free-for-all.

Their rather extensive property on the Kenai River
has cabins, permanent trailers, and a number of RV
parking (Bill and Connie used to park their fifth
wheel there), which means they can accommodate a large
number of friends and relations, of whom Scotty and
Rose have a lot, as they are very down-to-earth and
friendly people.

There was little traffic going down, and we showed
up an hour before the party proper, which gave me
time to get acquainted with the family and for
Swisher to chew the fat a bit with his old friends.

Passed appetizers - pickled Jalapeno poppers stuffed
with cream cheese and shredded Alaska crabmeat, made
by a daughter and granddaughter or two; I found this
a waste of crabmeat - between the pickliness of the
pickled peppers and the smallish amount of heat, the
seafood flavor was submerged, and the stuff added
just a bit of texture. Rose's devilled eggs were
unusual, with an extra moist blended filling with I
believe sweet relish as a major component. it's a
pretty traditional family, and the women cooked and
the men set up and toted stuff and of course were in
charge of the big drum barbecue. Swisher and I toted
a gigantic cooler of soft drinks out to the drink
area, and that was pretty much the extent of our work.
I'd have been more comfortable, as you can guess, in
the kitchen.

When people had filtered in, a bit after noon there
was a brief memorial service for someone I didn't
know, and then the festivities began.

Swisher is traditionally the keeper of the keg, and
most years he's kept pretty busy; but with half the
normal number of guests and an inordinate proportion
of rugrats, his task was pretty easy, with myself and
just a few others providing much of the custom.

There was the usual summer picnic assortment of dogs,
burgers, and chicken; I didn't get any of this last,
because it was all taken by the time I got to the buffet
(people over 73 first - we wondered why this cutoff, and
I suggested that as Swisher is somewhat under that,
perhaps it was in honor of his prodigious appetite).

Normal picnic food, beans in many iterations, mac and
cheese and other casseroles, conventional but funny-
looking salads. Notable were a sweet-and-salty lasagne
with olives (I didn't care for it - it was really
quite sweet) and a chili that was very mild but pretty
good despite being half beans and half meat.

The real highlights were the desserts, including a
spice cookie sort of like ginger hermits and a number
of pretty respectable chocolate cookies and brownies,
especially a raspberry chocolate bar thing.

Less notable was the red-white-and-blue Jell-O mold,
vaguely fruit-flavored but mostly tasteless, and a
cheesecake that I didn't try for obvious reasons.

Later on I discovered some chocolate-coated coconut-
covered almonds, which were very good and which on
inquiry turned out to be from Costco.

The crowd thinned out before the advertised end time,
so we bailed at a reasonable hour. It was a pretty easy
trip back, too, there not being a whole lot of traffic.

When we got back to the house, I went to get a glass of
water and found both halves of the kitchen sink full
almost to the brim with black wastewater that had gurgled
up, so Swisher called maintenance, which called the real
plumber, who made short work of the mess. It transpired
that the 3rd floor sink had been plumbed earlier in the
day, and the problem just got referred down a bit, which
seems to be the way most problems are handled anyway.
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