So much Small World

Had an excellent, busy, friend-filled weekend. Saturday there was a gaming party at Elsinore at which I spent most of the day. I made two enormous pans of what I will call baked squash in mozzarella and tomato sauce-- it's basically eggplant parmesan, except no eggplant and no parmesan --which turned out to be fortunate, as there were many more people present for dinner than I had planned. I wanted to make dinner for Plesser, who was staying a couple of nights with us before heading out. Also, Marissa came back from her year in Greece! She got too late to have dinner with us, unfortunately, but it was nice to see her again.

The next day Jared and I went to have dinner with Matt and Lise. It was so nice. Matt made the most amazing meal, squash ravioli in sage wrappers, beets with mozzarella drizzled in balsamic, and panna cotta. It was really delicious and expertly made. We put together a cornmeal cake with a balsamic glaze to take with us, as well as a bottle of chardonnay. The company was excellent, we will have to do it again sometime. The evening ended with the dessert as well as the company of Nat, Viktoriya, Kerri, and Andrew, which was so much fun.

I played so much Small World this weekend, it was great. Played two games of it at the gaming day at my place, and another at Matt and Lise's. I love this game so much. I'm still not very good at it, but I fairly consistently come in second, so I don't totally suck at it like I do at most strategy games. I kind of wish there was a solitaire version so I could play even when nobody wanted to play with me. You guys will probably find me someday camped out around a board with four different sides set up, each one of them played by me against myself. Might be a good way to practice strategy! ;-) 

Resetting the kitchen

I will be glad when the upheaval at Elsinore is settled. There has been so much activity with people moving their things in and out it has not been the most peaceful place to be lately. Also, things are not exactly neat with everything ripped up with the dividing of our various personal things that had previously been for communal use. I am really looking forward to having a neat, orderly house again with random pieces of furniture and appliances and such that are not going to disappear any minute.

For my part, it seems I have secured a kitchen table from Craigslist to purchase, and will be picking it up tomorrow. I plan on bringing a tool box with me in case it fits better in the car with the legs taken off, which given my car seems like a very likely prospect. Also, my rolling kitchen cart is scheduled to be delivered today! I'm very excited. I am also looking into replacing the kitchen shelf. I never much liked that thing, it's kind of ugly and cheap-looking, but since it's useful to have there, I'm going to look into finding a nicer-looking replacement.

It's actually kind of fun to get to reset my kitchen. :-)