1:03 p.m. // 14 August 2006

In the past week and a half we've throw a baby shower and a stag party.

The baby shower for Mr. Arthur featured homemade ice cream (real vanilla bean by Becca! hand-cranked burnt caramel by Dwayne and me!) with all the fixin's, and silly games and soda pop. The melt-the-baby-frozen-in-an-ice-cube game was deemed a little weird. The guess-the-baby-food-served-in-a-diaper game made me and Heather feel filthy-guilty. The turkey baby food smelled pungent; the mac and cheese was universally reviled, and it made a real baby cry. Everyone liked the prunes.

For the Heather and Tyler's stag party, Dwayne and Josh and I transformed the place into a lantern- and candle-lit den strewn with pin-up girls and a big Cry Baby poster. Betty Page was on the TV. I painted tiki guys and made sushi, pineapple and other fruit with chocolate fondue, sushi, egg rolls (out of the freezer) with pineapple-ginger sauce, and the requisite cheese balls. Dwayne speared some Lil' Smokies on toothpicks with cheese cubes and pineapple. Heather's mom Mo made naughty cupcakes. Jim assembled cheeseball genitalia and brought along his friends to do burlesque. Switchblade Razors played, duo-style.

We're closing on our house next week. Hurrah! I'm excited about: