Miscellaneous Monday
Welcome to more of the random hodge-podge that is my life.
Let’s see…. what’s been going on…
Well, last week Madi and I took a short trip home to Arkansas, just to hang with my parents for a few days while both of my sisters were out of town. My oldest sister Carolyn and her husband (along with Daniel, my Computer Genius Nephew) were in Alaska visiting David’s sister– actually they are still there, posting photos of themselves happily posing in front of random glaciers on their Facebook pages; looks like they are having a ball! My sister Liz and her husband were in Reno, Nevada visiting their son Zach and his gorgeous wife Lauren (who is also the sports editor for the Reno newspaper, btw– which I believe makes her what guys refer to as “the whole package!”) and also enjoying a lovely side-trip to San Francisco and the Sonoma wine country. So Madi and I thought that it would be a good time to dash down and have a short but sweet visit with Mom and Dad. In an attempt to fatten Daddy up a little, I made a big ol’ chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes dinner one night, complete with My Now Legendary (‘virgin’, in this case) Blackberry Mojitos. Here we are relaxing out on the patio– Madi abandoned her Funyuns long enough to take the picture.
We got back home Thursday night, and on Friday we had the opportunity to welcome our favorite Faroe Island friends Jakup and Sanna Zachariassen and their children Sakaris, Herborg and Filip over for dinner. They are in the middle of an incredible family vacation that is apparently spanning the whole dang U.S.A. Jakup and Russ are also planning on spending a few hours in the studio tomorrow to add background vocals to a couple of the tracks they just recorded in the Faroes. After all of their incredible kindness and hospitality to us, it was such a pleasure to be able to return just a small portion to them. I asked Russ to text Jakup and ask them if they liked barbeque, because of course I wanted to treat them to some good ol’ Southern gourmet food. Jakup texted back immediately and said “Sorry, we only eat whale blubber…” Which proves once and for all that the gift of being a smart-ass spans all cultural and geographical boundaries.
We had such a great evening! Their children were a bit bemused by the fact that though we don’t actually live on a golf course, somehow we have ended up with one in our back yard, thanks to our sweet retired neighbor The Master Gardener, who has a generous nature, admirable work ethic and apparently a lot of time on his hands. He laboriously laid out 9 holes including one down by my garden, complete with meticulously manicured greens and regulation golf flags. I believe we have used it… OK, I don’t think we’ve technically ever used it. The Master Gardener was so pleased to see a group of kids milling around down there that he eagerly offered them clubs and then Russ rummaged around and managed to come up with some golf balls and despite the fact that the heavens opened up and drenched them right in the middle of their “game,” Team Faroe and Team USA happily sliced balls and created massive divots all over the back yard!
**Filip reacts to a missed putt:
**Beautiful doe-eyed Herborg can’t quite figure this whole thing out:
**Annnnd then it rained…
**In the process of laying out the feast:
**Russ helpfully explains the finer points of bbq, such as the importance of heaping cole slaw and pickles on top of your pulled pork sandwich:
**Using my company manners for the sake of the photo:
**Abandoning all pretense and getting down to bidness:
A good time was had by all.
So… what was YOUR weekend like?
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Looks good!
This weekend I entertained 15 six year old mermaids and surfers in Leamington Spa – which is about as far away from the sea as you can get in the UK! This was Hannah’s leaving/early birthday party. We will be living hundreds of miles away when she actually turns 6 so we promised her she could have a celebration with her friends before we go. It was fun, we went rock-pooling (in the paddling pool) and digging for buried treasure (in the sand pit). We also decorated party bags with lots of sea themed pictures and stickers, and made mermaid finger-puppets. We played flap the fish, musical mermaids and sleeping sea-turtles and ate a lot of pizza and ice cream. It was, I have to admit, slightly chaotic, but Hannah had fun and that was the point of it all.
The weekend before of course, was Beth’s 4th birthday – so we’d already done it all with 12 4 year old dalmatians and a dog theme, then! I’m kinda pleased its all over with now.
On another note, I’m hoping to see my favourite faroese family tomorrow
LOOK!!! Do all the elderly have those tea glasses???? I ahve my granmother’s right now – except hers were an amber color!!
grrrrrrrrrrrr…………………
Yeah – girl – you are CHOWING DOWN ON THAT BBQ SANDWICH!!!!! GO, TORI!!! I really busted out laughing when i saw that pic!!! Everyone in the library turned to look…..real lady-like there, for real!!!
As for my wekend – ya really dont want to know, & I REALLY DONT EVEN WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT! Lets just say, I’m dealing w/ a 23 year old daughter’s attitides in regards to her LOSER boyfriend right now! I love him, BUT I SURE DONT LIKE HIM AT ALL RIGHT ABOUT NOW!
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Tori Taff. Tori Taff said: Just another manic Monday weekly wrap-up: Quick trip to AR, Faroese dinner guests, rainy backyard golf– CHECK! http://tinyurl.com/24y3s5n […]
I LOVE BBQ pulled pork sandwiches with coleslaw piled on top! Made ‘em last week! I used to think it was just a food quirk of our family to combine the two, but I found out it is not! Yum!! Your food feast looks wonderful, Tori! And your folks look so good in that picture! Is your Dad doing well? He sure looks like it!
As for my weekend, I seem to be following a pattern the last month—-one Sunday, I spent the day in the hospital with my granddaughter. (
She’s home and fine now.) Then the next Sunday, I took my mom to the hospital ER and stayed with her all night waiting to be seen. We arrived at 1:30a.m. and she saw the doctor at 6:30—-five hours later. (She’s fine now too, but I missed seeing Dog, The Bounty Hunter in person. But I didn’t tell Mom that! She’d feel badly.) And yesterday, my hubby sprained his ankle and tore a tendon and we sat in the E.R. together, reading way outdated magazines and eating dinner from a vending machine! Next Saturday night, I’m gonna pack a little tote bag with recent magazines, protein bars and fruit, and my little hand held Yatzee game…….just in case!
That is SO COOL to have a golf course in your back yard!!! My husband and I used to golf a lot, but the kids came along and took over our spare time!
I take it your back is a lot better since you were able to cook up that feast! Or, did Russ do it?
I can’t wait to hear that new CD!
Great pix!!
I don’t think the rain would do the Faroese any harm…We’ve had plenty of rain lately 
Oh my gosh! I just died laughing looking at that last picture…
Your face while you’re eating that sandwich is hilarious!
Jess
It looks like you really had a good time! The pictures clearly have an “inviting” touch
Our weekend was all sweating and gasping (and trying hard to avoid panicking on my part). In this part of the world we are not used to temperatures like that combined with high humidity. I can cope with the heat (though the houses usually don’t have air conditioning) but the humidity gets me down.
Coming to the “panicking part”: my French oral exam is scheduled for next week on Tuesday including two translations (one into German and the other into French) and questions on civilization and economics. Thee point is that my teacher told me it will depend on my second translation wether I will graduate or not! (Because one of the written tests was not quite as good as requested and with the oral exam I can – hopefully – compensate that)
Tori, the look on your face as you stuff your face…is priceless!
Looks like wonderful weekend :o) When I wasn’t working, I attending a staff family picnic at the Christian camp where my son works ( and lives) in the summer.. went to the drive – in for some one on one time with my 14 y/o daughter and shopped , shopped and shopped for college items with my 18 y/o future lawyer daughter – and even managed some quality time with my husband :o)
Here in South Carolina we are prone to put a pig in a pit and cook it slowly on an electric spike, basting it with water and binegar every half hour. The fellas cooking the pig don’t get much sleep but we cover them with appreciation and, so, they survive.
Actually, there are several bar-b-que places here in Aiken, but only one of them cooks their pig in the pit just as I described. The others cook them in their kitchens just as I do sometimes….when there is nobody around to run to Carolina Bar-B-Que.