Thanks to a beloved family member, I have a new url! I am in the process of fully moving over there, so please check it out!
http://feelingelephants.com/
I’m back in Pittsburgh and need some sleep, and I wish you a merry new year!
You must first have a lot of patience to learn to have patience.
- Stanislaw J. Lec
This will be a bit different from my other How Tos. This is based on the work I did to run the Pancake supper for my parent’s old church.
Basic stats on this outline are: dinner for 50 in a medium sized parish hall starting at 6:30pm with pancake races.
Shrove Tuesday, AKA Marti Gras or most tellingly, Fat Tuesday, is the excuse to eat tons of eggs and meat and lard (or butter/oil) before the denials of Lent begin. It is the party to get you through the purple weeks. Here is the Wikipedia entry on Shrove Tuesday.
The pancake races are something slightly less reverent. The way I have always seen them conducted is thus: just when every person at the dinner has stuffed themselves with pancakes, the races begin. The eaters are divided by age into different categories (or by school level–it depends on the size of the group), and then they compete two at a time. The competition is simple. Each eater is given a frying pan with a pancake in it. Having found a suitably long and un-obstacled venue in which to run, the two contestants (former eaters) are given the signal by the judge, and then they flip their pancake, run to the other end of the hall, flip their pancake again, run back to the starting line and flip their pancake a third time. There are cool prizes (like bouncy balls and beads and stuffies).
I will not include information which is not owned by me (obviously) but I will list them so any reader of this can get an idea of what information is needed for a successful pancake supper.
As Pancake supper is usually a church-run event, this will probably be a parish hall or other kind of meeting space.
Make Ahead Yeast Pancakes
Sausages
Apple Sauce
See last header for Recipes.
NOTE: For one table (there will be 10 people seated per table)
11 tables (1 for coffee & tea 10 for seating)
Serving dishes: 2 (1 for pancakes, 1 for sausages per table)
Condiments bowls: 3 (1 for chocolate chips, 1 for powdered sugar, 1 strawberries per table)
Serving forks 2 (1 for pancakes, 1 for sausages per table)
Medium bowl 1 (for apple sauce)
Serving Spoon 1 (for Apple Sauce)
Plates 10 (per table)
Forks/Knives/Spoons 10 (per table)
Mugs 10 (per table)
3 Pitchers (for pouring Pancake batter)
3 Frying Pans (for pancakes)
3 Serving spoons for (1 for each Condiments bowl)
4 Big heating pans (chaffing dishes can be useful if you are serving a large crowd. However if you cooks can keep on top of the orders, it also works to put one big serving platter full of pancakes under another empty on to keep the heat in if the wait will be 10 minutes or under)
5 Spatulas
3 Tongs for cooking sausages
3 Griddles for cooking sausages (Can also use baking sheets and an oven)
You might want to put up posters with information (redone in pretty fonts) like this:
Shrove Tuesday
Pancake Supper
6:30-8:00pm
[You location’s name]
Pancakes, Apple Sauce, Sausages and Pancake Races!
All donations go to support [Your Group and You Cause]
Map to place where Pancake supper/race will be held (if you GoogleMap/YahooMap/MaqQuest your location and go to the “print” screen you can drag the image(s) off of the page onto your desktop and insert them into you poster).
Post somewhere prominent in the kitchen
I wanted to make the supper as easy for everyone involved as possible, so I drew up a list like this:
List of jobs for 2007 Shrove Tuesday Pancake supper at All Saints Episcopal Church:
Job # People needed Time Volunteer (s)
Clean up crew 3 7:30-8:30, (Names of volunteers)
Condiment Prep 2 4:30-5:30,
Sausage cooking 2 5:00-6:30,
Pancake cooking 2 5:45-6:30,
Food prep 2 4:00-6:00,
Decorations 1 5:30ish,
Set up 2 Anytime before 5:30,
Kitchen Busgirl/Servers 3 6:00-7:45,
Decorations and Table/Chair set up can occur anytime during the day, need to be done by 6pm
Our decorations were lovely Marti Gras beads, colorful plastic table clothes and plastic confetti sprinkled around the tables.
Here is a form I wrote up to give to volunteers who needed volunteer hours (many high schools and some extra curricular organizations require volunteer work from their students/members).
[Name, address, email and phone number of your organization]
Volunteer form
To Whom It May Concern;
On __________, 2007 ________________ of ______________________ school assisted [Name of Organization] by helping to run the Shrove Tuesday Pancake Races. This individual volunteered for ___________________ hours. I recognize that _______________did an outstanding job in their community service to the [Church]. We appreciated the time and effort that this individual put into assisting us. If there are any questions or comments regarding this individual’s community service please feel free to contact the [Church]. All information including the supervisors name is listed on this page. Thank you.
[Here you can put information about what (if anything) you are fundraising for]
Volunteer name:___________________________________
Volunteer telephone # (_____)_____________________________
Volunteer email:___________________________________
Supervision name:_________________________________
Supervisor signature:_______________________________
Supervisor telephone # (_____)_________________________________
Supervisor email: ____________________________________
Notes:
Here are my notes from how the Pancake supper 2007 went:
NOTE: the church I ran this in has an industrial Dishwasher. I loved that kitchen, but the Dishwasher was one of my favorite objects in it. 90 seconds for a 2ft by 2ft tray of plates and forks and they were perfectly clean. Beautiful! So most of the notes about running an industrial washing machine in an small space will probably not apply to *you*. However, they show how you might go about getting dishes for 50 people washed in such a way your volunteers won’t kill you at midnight.
Bought 3 boxes of Sausages at Costco, which worked (1 NY breakfast sausages, 2 Italian sausages) We made 6 batches of batter on Sunday and stored them in a 5 pound paint bucket in the refrigerator—it appears to have overflowed (the Food closet people kindly cleaned it up on Monday). We also made 2 pounds of the Pancake batter from a bag because we ran out of pancakes. The pancakes out of the bag were actually not too bad tasting—they might be used exclusively in the future.
Things that went really well: the condiments were lovely and well prepared ahead of time. The sausages cooked well in the oven (350 degrees until brown on cookie trays). The gluten-free pancakes went over well, even those made from a recipe made new itself that day. The volunteers were generally wonderful, interested in helping and courteous to each other. All of the food tasted good and everyone I saw came away happy.
Things that went not-so-well. Too much apple-sauce, we bought enough apple sauce to fill the medium-sized glass bowls for 12 tables. Next year we need some front-of-the-house specific people. We need someone to hang out in the parish hall, wait until there are enough people mingling to fill up about 3 tables, then call everyone to sit down (after notifying the kitchen that they’re doing that and checking that food is ready for 3 full tables) then have someone give a prayer. That same person or people should watch out to see if people are finishing up (the people who deliver the trays of pancakes should check to see if anyone at the table wants gluten-free pancakes). That person should gauge the flow of the evening—greeting and seating new people, notifying someone else to go and get the full table serving (1 platter of pancakes, 1 large plate of sausages and 1 bowl of apple sauce) for that table. When it seems that most people are almost finished (but their plates are not fully empty) then that person should get the races started. This person does not have to carry plates or announce the beginning of the races, but they should be the one responsible for the flow—a matridee of sorts.
On cleanup, the 5 trays should always be in the wash up room. 2 filled up with dishes, 1 in the washer and 2 drying. This means that no dirty dishes outside of trays should be brought into the washing-room. John had a wonderful suggestion—if we could buy about 6 bus-boy buckets (the grey dish buckets) and then have all dirty dishes placed on the stainless steel in the open fold-up window. From there all of the butter-cups could be soaked, all of the plates could be soaked and all of the cups and other bowls—then all of the dishes can be washed in sets, which would make it a lot easier to clean.
This sounds really pedantic but it will help make cleanup faster.
NOTE: I used the top recipe because I love cooking and yeast is a fun ingredient. However, having read my debrief, you will know the perils and uncertain culinary benefits to this kind of pancake batter. The large bags of Just-Add-Water pancake mix seemed to be just as satisfying to everyone at the pancake supper.
Make Ahead Waffle and Pancake Batter
From Linda Larsen,
Your Guide to Busy Cooks.
This delicious and super easy recipe for make ahead waffle and pancake batter uses yeast for a complex flavor. You can keep it in your fridge for 4 days for breakfast in minutes.
PREPARATION:
In large bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt and yeast. In medium saucepan, heat milk and butter over low heat until warm and add along with eggs to flour mixture. Beat at medium speed until smooth. Cover and refrigerate for up to 4 days, stirring in 2 additional tablespoons sugar after second day. (Note from Jessica: these pancakes are a lot less sweet than the more cake-like quick bread variations. This recipe has lots of texture and not much flavor, which means it takes in the flavors of all of the condiments around it. Just be prepared for a little bit of a tart pancake rather than a sugary tasting one).
For pancakes, lightly grease griddle and pour about 1/4 cup batter onto hot surface for each pancake. Turn when edges look cooked and bubbles begin to break on surface, about 3-4 minutes, then cook a few minutes longer until other side is browned, about 1-3 minutes.
Doesn’t matter if you call them Flapjacks, Hotcakes or Griddlecakes, they are all just Pancakes to me. Pancakes are one of America’s oldest and favorite types of quick breads. Here are the basic cooking and freezing directions.
Pancakes are so simple to make. All you need is a griddle or a flat bottomed skillet. Heat griddle until a drop of water sizzles on it. Once hot, lightly grease it. Combine pancake ingredients until large lumps are gone. Don’t over mix. Fluffy pancakes are made by leaving small lumps in the batter. For a uniform pancake size, use a 1/4 or 1/3 cup measurer to ladle batter onto griddle. Turn the pancakes when there are bubbles all over the top and the edges are lightly browned. Flip the pancakes and bake the other side for just a few minutes. To maintain a fluffy pancake, do not flattened them with the spatula.
Remove pancakes to a plate to keep warm until the entire batch is made.
Store leftover pancakes in the freezer. Line a cookie sheet with wax paper. Make pancake stacks of two each with a teaspoon of butter in between. Once all of the stacks are on the cookie sheet, put them in the freezer. As soon as they are frozen, move individual stacks into a resealable freezer bag. Reheat them for about 1 to 2 minutes* on a plate in the microwave. (*Timing is dependent on the type and size of pancake.)
“Instant” Pancake Mix
Recipe courtesy Alton Brown
Show: Good Eats
Episode: Flap Jack Do It Again
Combine all of the ingredients in a lidded container. Shake to mix.
Use the mix within 3 months.
“INSTANT” PANCAKES:
Heat an electric griddle or frying pan to 350 degrees F. Heat oven to 200 degrees F.
Whisk together the egg whites and the buttermilk in a small bowl. In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the melted butter.
Combine the buttermilk mixture with the egg yolk mixture in a large mixing bowl and whisk together until thoroughly combined. Pour the liquid ingredients on top of the pancake mix. Using a whisk, mix the batter just enough to bring it together. Don’t try to work all the lumps out.
Check to see that the griddle is hot by placing a few drops of water onto to the griddle. The griddle is ready if the water dances across the surface.
Lightly butter the griddle. Wipe off thoroughly with a paper towel. (No butter should be visible.)
Gently ladle the pancake batter onto the griddle and sprinkle on fruit if desired. When bubbles begin to set around the edges of the pancake and the griddle-side of the cake is golden, gently flip the pancakes. Continue to cook 2 to 3 minutes or until the pancake is set.
Serve immediately or remove to a towel-lined baking sheet and cover with a towel. Hold in a warm place for 20 to 30 minutes.
Yield: 12 pancakes
NOTE: though I have not tried this recipe before, the reason to make you own instant mix is two-fold: 1) it is fun, 2) mixes made by hand are generally healthier. Most store bought mixes are extremely high in sodium and sugar to make up for their age and shoddy contents. Their recipes can also call for a lot more butter/oil, again, to make up for the taste of old ingredients. This can be a nice weekend project–maybe have some volunteers create the mix for the main meal and some other volunteers create individual batches to sell or auction off during the dinner. See this sales site for some nice decorating ideas.
Here is the Gluten-Free Latke recipe some of my wonderful volunteers came up with that day:
1 tbsp. cooking oil
2 tbsp. sugar
1 egg
1.5 c. water
1.5 c. sliced or grated potato (dry)
1 c. gluten flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
.5 tsp. salt
In a medium bowl, thoroughly mix the oil and honey. Add the egg and the milk and beat until well combined using an egg beater (or a whisk or a spoon). Add the dry ingredients and beat the mixture just until the batter is smooth. Grease an electric skillet with 1 tablespoon of oil and heat to 375 degrees. Use about .25 cup batter for each pancake. Cook until the edges look a bit dry, then flip over and cook about 1.5 minutes longer.
I also have an amount calculator (input number of guests and it outputs a shopping list) but I am having trouble uploading it right now, so leave me a comment and I’ll post it/send it to you.
And remember, just like anything else, be flexible. If there won’t be enough of your prized pancake batter your sweated blood to produce, sigh and move on to the Just-Add-Water stuff. The most important thing is that you are feeding people who need to be fed.
“The day before the beginning of Lent is known as Shrove Tuesday. To shrive someone, in old-fashioned English (he shrives, he shrove, he has shriven or he shrives, he shrived, he has shrived), is to hear his acknowledgement [sic] of his sins, to assure him of God’s forgiveness, and to give him appropriate spiritual advice. The term survives today in ordinary usage in the expression “short shrift”. To give someone short shrift is to pay very little attention to his excuses or problems. The longer expression is, ‘to give him short shrift and a long rope,’ which formerly meant to hang a criminal with a minimum of delay.” Etymology of Shrove.
In my search for good basic resources on special education I came across this well done and informative blog. I especially recommend the Power Point presentations because of their slick and ready to use contents and important facts. Go special ed teachers!
“If you have any doubts that we live in a society controlled by men, try reading down the index of contributors to a volume of quotations, looking for women’s names.” Elaine Gill
Wow, so much has happened. A birthday party, a New Years Party, skiing at Tahoe, confirming my participation in a summer Opera program, not to mention a revolutionary Primary and a massive storm: tons of stuff has been happening.
I’m reading Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney: Slavery, Secession, and the President’s War Powers (Hardcover) which is brilliant–I love hearing 19th century gossip. Did you know Lincoln spoke in a high, shrill tenor? Or that the Chief Justice who wrote the Dred Scott decision (where all people of African descent were ruled permanent second class citizens. Not the noblest moment in our high court’s history) freed “his”slaves when he lived in Maryland? All very interesting stuff. Anyhoo, more later (watching America’s Next Top Model).
Cynic: A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be. - Ambrose Bierce
From a strictly non-legal perspective comes the article entitled Choice Words. It’s a personal opinion on the value and social use of Bubble zones. A Bubble zone is an ordinance (usually handled by individual cities) that declares some area out of bounds for protesting. At the Planned Parenthood clinic I volunteer at, the Bubble zone has two aspects.
PS: here is a more factual Post-Gazette article.
The simple sum-up of why I believe Ms Brown’s First Amendment Claim is erroneous is that 1) the statute she is seeking to overturn is content neutral 2) she is mistaking a Manner of speech restriction for a Speech restriction (the first is allowed [think bull-horns being banned in residential neighborhoods by nuisance ordinances] and the second is not).
1) protesters cannot stand within 15 feet of the clinic entrance. Since the clinic entrance is on an open city street this could theoretically get awkward if Planned Parenthood protester’s weren’t terribly easy to recognize (ie, because tons of ordinary people walk through that special semi-circle en-route to the bus or the bakery). However, as every protester I’ve seen has a) their hands full of literature or b) is carrying a truly large and/or disgusting sign it is fairly easy to enforce.
2) There is a 100 foot area (also measured from the clinic door) where advocates of any viewpoint must respond to requests to back up my moving back 8 feet from the person who asked. I was trained that all kinds of language could serve to ask a protester to move away, but the most common is probably “get away from me!”.
As an escort I could, but don’t, ask protesters to move away from me. See, if they’re focused on me, maybe some people will get into the clinic without being hassled. We never engage and we never ask for attention other than by standing out there in our Planned Parenthood Jerseys, but it is always nice to see people get into the clinic without our help. In fact on my last weekend, every single person came in without needing our help–they were empowered and did it themselves.
On the argument mentioned in the article that a protester (the one suing is Mary Kathryn Brown) is not able to access his or her intended audience I would question as an accurate assesment.
On the 15 foot painted line which mark where protesters can and cannot go, I know from personal experience it is absolutely possible to discern the messages of the protesters from just in front of the clinic doors. Though I am far from an expert, I remember no precedent which requires privately run organizations to allow all speech inside of their facilities. In fact, the very doctrine of designating a space a public forum seems to imply that, unless specifically designed as such, most spaces are not open to all messages and forms of dicussion.
On the 8 foot requestable personal space bubble, I believe that protesters are prevented from a method of distributing their speech rather than the act of speech by the 8 foot personal space bubble. The method which I assume Ms Brown is wishing to engage in is commonly called sidewalk counseling, where a protester walks very close to a patient and speaks to them in a low and hopefully sincere voice. It is this sense of private counsel which Ms Brown and her fellow protesters lose if they are asked to move back, not the ability to convey their messages.
The only other possibility is that Ms Brown is hoping to physically influence, ok, let’s just say it, intimidate, patients coming into the clinic. Protesters sometimes ring the 15 foot circle, forming a seemingly impassable wall (though they are legally banned from forming “human chains”) of yelling people and ugly signs. There are protesters whose choose to wear very disturbing jewelry (a fetus crucifix is one example) which I’m sure is quite upsetting in its detail (and the First Amendment absolutely protects all of the disturbing, upsetting and ugly signs. I am firmly of the belief that all content-based censures are violative of the most basic human right to speak and be heard). However physical intimidation is an action and no speech and therefore is not covered by the First Amendment, or any aspect of the United States Constitution.
The crucified fetus’s message may be most effective when viewed from within 8 feet; however is a speaker chooses a size (and in Ms Brown’s case, volume) of speech which is ineffective, it is not Constitutionally required that the Government support that speech.
On two anecdotal notes I would like to say something.
1) In my limited time at Planned Parenthood I have never heard or seen anyone invoke the 8 foot rule. I have seen protesters step between a woman and her companion to try and separate them, and I have seen protesters specifically set down outside of the 100 foot area where they may be asked to back up.
2) I have stood inside the 15 foot circle and had protesters yell in their best stage voices from the full 15 feet away and I could hear them clearly. I could also hear them quietly saying the rosary and greeting each other good morning.
As I see the protesters have no First Amendment right to have their voices carry inside of the clinic (would the clinic be required to leave its doors open on 20 degree mornings and never install soundproof glass if this was held as true?) since their voices carry just fine to everyone inside of the 15 foot circle I see no First Amendment issue here.
Clover - Three leaf relates the holy trinity. Four leaf relates good luck. - Sinead Toolis Byrd
This, like many blog posts, came out of an excellent email discussion with a beloved relative who is setting up her first webpage. Just like the Blind Men and the Elephants I saw very large problem and tried to break it down a little. Therefore I came up with this series of questions which are designed to help the person answering them decide what kind of website they want.
These are front end questions. The back end (admin) thoughts behind them are:
Here’s the result at eleanordickinson.wordpress.com
Saying what we think gives us a wider conversational range than saying what we know. - Cullen Hightower
I recently received this Facebook message from a conscientious friend:
Subject: dont want to be deleted but ill feel like a loser if its a fake
Attention all Facebook membeRs.
Facebook is recently becoming very overpopulated,
There have been many members complaining that Facebook
is becoming very slow.Record shows that the reason is
that there are too many non-active Facebook members
And on the other side too many new Facebook members.
We will be sending this messages around to see if the
Members are active or not,If you’re active please send
to other users using Copy Paste to show that you are active
Those who do not send this message within 2 weeks,
The user will be deleted without hesitation to create more space,
If Facebook is still overpopulated we kindly ask for donations but until then send this message to all your friends and make sure you send
this message to show me that your active and not deleted.
Founder of Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg
This is a scam. Here are one, two and three blog posts about it.
A cheap and easy way to see if something like this is a scam is to analyze the writing. There are capitalization errors, spacing errors, grammar errors and paragraphing errors. Also, and this is more fiddly, chief executives do not sign their emails this way. Generally the format for professional email is:
Name of Professional
Name of Organization
Position in Organization
Phone Number and Extension
To use an example from someone I know. “Founder of Facebook” is not nearly formal enough. Also, have you ever received a message posted to your wall from Facebook? The wall, as I understand it, is for Friend to Friend communications. Facebook the company would email us–it certainly has the capability.
Again fiddly, but think about this message from a technical viewpoint. Facebook is run on servers. What do you do when you need more space on servers? You buy more servers! Google and MySpace use signifigantly more memory than Facebook and it would be a silly business decision for Facebook to start alienating its members by threatening them with take down notices.
Finally, the line “If Facebook is still overpopulated we kindly ask for donations” should tip you off. This is not how major companies solicit funds. Make no mistake, Facebook is a for-profit company and makes loads of money off of the adds it puts on your pages. Wikipedia can ask for money because it’s not a for profit company. Facebook employees and Mark Zuckerberg are making tons of money off of us–and since we like their service, that’s ok. However there is no circumstance when Facebook would ask for money by posting on your Wall.
Hope you have a great Solstice!
Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. -Benjamin Franklin
Implicit here are a few assumptions.
1) You have people to invite. My rule of thumb is every person I invite should know at least 2 other people who I am inviting. Therefore I don’t spend my entire party taking care of someone, and if one person they know is having a snit, no one person is left by themselves.
2) You have a space to have a party in. This is serious. Though parks may work during the summer, a space for the party should fit the people. My parties are always more like LAN parties than American Pie Parties. But since my friends are a mix of tech geeks and other kinds of geeks, if there is going to be gaming I have a separate non-gaming room. I am in my parent’s house and use the kitchen to make popcorn and the fridge to keep sodas cold. The gaming room is also a TV room for movie watching. If it is a sleepover (ie, for New Years) you must have a quiet room for people to go to sleep in if they want. Depending on the ownership of your space (ie, if you have parents who like sleep) you should discuss *at least a week before hand* the hours of the party, the hours people will be awake, and the acceptable behavior of guests.
3) You have a day. If you have the set up and 1) own your own house or 2) have very accommodating parents and 3) friends who don’t schedule things far in advance you can do a nice party with only a day or two’s notice.
Understanding these assumptions, here’s your time line and shopping list for a fictional birthday party.
Set up an Evite. You can do a version of this using Ruby on Rails or any other scheduling website, but I have Evite to be unobtrusive and low maintenance. You will need all of your invitees emails (note, keep these for future parties. Having one central list will save you time next party around). Use the map option on the Evite; also, take some time to figure out how to get to your house/space by public transit and with a car. It may be obvious to you, but if your friends don’t come over often, help them out.
Ask a friend to co-host. Having a friend to bounce ideas off of will help (also s/he can show up and help 1) keep you calm 2) help you finish setting up food before the party starts.
First check out what you have at home–however never underestimate how much your friends will eat. This time of year there should be cookies, fruit cake and candy. Put them out in decorative bowls when the time comes and voila! pretty food.
Vegi or fruit platter: (they sell the entire thing at the grocery. Just buy it. Chopping carrots as the guests come in is a bore.)
Soda: I figure 1-1.5 sodas per person. So for a party with 20 people coming, get 4 six-packs of soda and 1 six-pack of root beer.
Popcorn (buy the bottles full of kernals and pop them on the stove if you have time. If I remember right, 2 tablespoons of butter or oil per 1/4 cup unpopped kernals. You can also shake up 1 tsp of cayenne pepper or 1 tsp of cinnamon with the popped popcorn to make it more interesting).
Ice cream. Buy about 2 quarts. If you have toppings at home (chocolate sauce, honey, Maraschino cherries) use them. They are extremely optional.
Pack everything into the fridge. All sodas do not need to go in now, you can do 2 six packs at a time to always have cold sodas on hand.
Double check with co-host and space owner (if that’s you, check with yourself). See who rsvped, call people you really want to attend who have not, answer last minute questions from intivees. If you have any messages (ie, can someone please bring a Wii, mine is in China) send them out before about 7pm the night before. Friends will answer a call late, but try to avoid imposing (this one’s hard because sometimes issues are only discovered late. That’s why being flexible is important).
Figure out where you’re ordering pizza from. They should deliver and you should like their pizza. NOTE: if you have any celiac, dieting or diabetic friends take this into account. For celiacs (no wheat orother gluten grains) offer to make them a great salad, or if some canned soup would be ok. Dieting, maybe order salad with the pizza or make the party a potluck (this works less well with teenagers). For diabetics, check with them, but make sure you have a supply of diet and caffeine-free soda.
Before you go to sleep, pick out your outfit of the party. It’s easy to get over stressed about how you will visually present yourself at a party and it’s better to plan it out before hand.
Clean your space and decorate. Move furniture (more chairs where you think they’ll be needed). Move things with a eye to how you want patterns of movement to exist. If you want everyone to sit around a room, place the chairs in the circle. If you want a few people to game, put a few chairs in the room near the console/tv and more around the edges of the room. If you are doing any cooking, so it in the morning so you can be clean for the party.
Eat lunch. This is your party and you will need all of your strength to be a kind, courteous and graceful host.
Co-host comes over, helps final clean-up and decorating.
With or without co-host. Get an idea of what kinds of games and movies you would like to have going on at the party–however remember to be flexible. Just because your dream date is watching Firefly, doesn’t mean all of your friends don’t want to watch Family Guy. By putting some thought into what you want to watch before hand, you avoid watching something you don’t like. How does a successful dictator stay in power? If democracy cannot be avoided, only allow those candidates on the ballot who you like. Same goes for party planning.
Everything for the party should be done by now. Take a quick shower (if more relaxing is needed, start at 3 or 3:30pm with a bath or a good novel) to get all of the cleaning and cooking feeling off of your skin. Get dressed in the outfit you picked out the night before.
Get out dishes for popcorn, chips and salsa. Fill them up with snacks. Place them in your snack area (where pets do not have access to it). Make sure your sodas are chillin’ and your tv/gaming console plugged in. You can take vegis out of the plastic container if you want them to be pretty (my family has a large supply of serving container. Feel free to leave things in plastics and bags if that’s not your style).
NOTE: here’s some social engineering advice. If a bowl looks over flowing people will eat more out of it. If cookies are perfectly arranged no one will want to disturb them. People eat more out of large serving utensils. Any be green conscious: soda cans can be recycles but the plastic cups you will use with large soda bottles cannot. Use real plastic plates and cups instead of disposable ones. Bike to the store. Whatever it takes.
Guests arrive. I’m always a little off schedule so I’ve developed a great ice-breaker/social save. The penalty for guests who show up early or exactly on time is they get to help me finish setting up. This gives us all something to do with our hands while we talk and makes guests feel part of the party. This is also a good way to get help with cleanup, because a guest who knows your kitchen will come in handy when it’s time to serve food.
Most every body should be there (they will straggle in with regularity for about an hour and a half after the official starting time of the party). Round everyone up and ask them about pizza preferences and order the pizza (for 20 people I would plan 3 larges. This is a good size because it allows for 1 all vegi, 1 all meat and 2 1/2s whatever random combos my friends will like this time).
Start a movie and eat pizza. This can be tv episodes and fairly short, or feature length. Leave it up to the guests–be flexible. If guests don’t want to watch, make sure there are cartoon books or other coffee table books in another room to keep them occupied.
NOTE: instead of a movie you can play games, Risk, Cranium or Wheel and Deal (a family favorite) or video games. I think it’s generally good to not force everyone into conversation for the entire 6 hours. Movies let people rest a bit in between socializing.
Movie’s over, time for cake and presents (if its a birthday party). If not, time for ice cream. There’s time for another movie or for people to break into smaller gaming and non-gaming groups. Let the guests dictate how it goes from here.
People will start getting picked up by their parents or driving off. Have a movie or something non-committal (ie, not Lord of the Rings Risk) going on if possible. See everyone to the door and make sure they are getting picked up by the right people.
Last stragglers are leaving, co-host will help start cleanup. Finish cleanup before you go to bed–it won’t be any prettier in the morning. Let any locked up pets out.
The biggest rule to party planning is Be Flexible. If all of the food went bad because of a power outage, well, you will have popcorn. Ask a few select unaffected friends to bring unspoilt goodies and have a party by candle-light. If an ex-shows up who you can’t deal with, tell your cohost and s/he will keep him/her occupied and out of your hair.
The only thing a party cannot recover from is a stressed out host. It makes the party no fun for anyone, least of all you. If you’re getting stressed, take a break. Go to the bathroom, go get a cold drink of water, even lie down for five minutes. Just stay cool and everything will be fine.
For more party stuff, see How to be a party girl by Pat Montandon. I read it in middle school and it has shaped how I run my parties. Great advice from a cool lady.
And have fun!
When Solomon said there was a time and a place for everything he had not encountered the problem of parking his automobile. - Bob Edwards
Hey all,
I’m in the midst of planning my birthday party and decided that I wanted to make my own cake. Really, I thought of all of the things I was getting for the party (chips, salsa, vegi/fruit plate, pizza ordered during party, popcorn with cayenne pepper, sugar or cinnamon, sodas) and felt there was a hole in my preparation. I wasn’t making anything. So it came to me I could do one of my very own recipes: Sunshine’s Killer Zebras. They are Sunshine’s because of one of the best books I have ever read (over and over again) Sunshine by Robin McKinley. You may know Ms McKinley from Beauty or Rose Daughter fame, or maybe from her two books (The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword) in Damar (though it can be argued all of her books are in Damar. The evidence is there.
However Sunshine is something special. Written in the first person, from the get go Sunshine (the main character’s name/nick-name) is individual, perfectly herself and enviable in her unique world. Anyway, there are tons of places to get good reviews about Sunshine, I’ll skip to the chase: last year after/in the middle of reading Sunshine, I was running Shrove Tuesday pancake supper for my parent’s church. I had a wonderful group of people working with me, many of whom were younger than me and therefore always hungry. Wanting to reward and encourage them as they worked to help make the supper a success (which it was) I make them Sunshine’s Killer Zebras.
That’s sort of the wrong way to expalin it. I had one of those mad creative flashes that leave you surrounded by new drapes at 10:30pm at night, or covered with dirt from the new border you just laid in the garden, or with a new and interesting excel sheet to organize the classes you’ll take for the next four years. Well, this particular mad creative flash left me with this recipe, which is duly written in the blank pages at the end of my hardback copy of Sunshine (ever wonder what those were for? Well, now you know.)
Enough stalling, here’s the recipe:
1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup Hershey’s coco
3 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup butter
3 2/3 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
Melt butter in pot. (Add coco). Add in powdered sugar and milk (alternating). Stir until smooth. Do Not Overheat.
Yellow Cake Mix
add 2/3 cup coco powder
heat water for cake mix (amount as on back of box)
add coco to hot water, stir until smooth. Add to other ingredients as instructed by cake mix.
White cake mix
prepare using milk instead of water
Once batter is prepared, pour batter in small amounts into baking pans from measuring pitchers, swirling as pleases. Bake according to instructions on mix box. Let cool to room temperature. Prepare icing,
Ice cake like zebra. I make two two layer cakes this way. They cut really prettily.
Eat.
“The table was a depressed-looking maiden in a very tight swath of material with no visible means of support, holding the carrying surface at an implausible angle between her neck and one shoulder. Even more implausible was the angle of her breasts, which I don’t think even cosmetic surgery could achieve” Sunshine, by Robin McKinley, hardback, page 245.
“There is a legion of little old ladies (or assorted ages and sexes) who manage to believe that Others are mostly small and cute and harmless, and live under toadstools, and wear harebells as hats. A lot of them ring up their local SOF div to report sightings, because that is the citizenly thing to do, and since there are a few ill-tempered Others who sometimes pretend to be small and cute and harmless—I’d never heard of any of them wearing harebells, however—these have to be checked out. But it is not a popular job.” Sunshine, by Robin McKinley, pg 369, Hardback.
“I had a Sensurround Dolby flash of The Ten Seconds That Didn’t go anywhere, but hit the mental censor button and it went poof.” Sunshine
“Good. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life being careful not to remember” Sunshine, by Robin McKinley, pg 347, Hardback.
“Maybe my medulla oblongata was refusing to take any crap from my cerebrum again. Shut up and get on with the reconstruction. If you can’t find the right piece, use the wrong one.” Sunshine, by Robin McKinley, pg 374, Hardback.
PS: in case you’re wondering where all of these came from, I have a personal quotes files I’ve been maintaining for years and years and these live in that (it has much better citations than most of my posts do). I go through other manic phases of accurately pulling up all of my favorite quotes. My family just puts check-marks by the passages they like. One of my favorite experiences is going through a book my mom or even a stranger has read and marked up: used books have the smell and feel of the people who have used them and those things give them a context and a love not found in other mediums (for an excellent explanation of this, see my quote of Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer on the comparitive smelliness of books and computers).
Hey all,
Speaking of different kinds of thinking differently (for first article see Dyslexia’s uses), my mom wrote a very cool post about my middle school, Peninsula School. I loved and still love Peninsula and believe it is a great experience and environment for many of my friends. Here is her post on Peninsula. Peninsula’s website is pretty low key–however, contrary to popular perception, one of the best places in my entire educational experience and a very powerful place does exist even without a strong web presence. I can’t wait to see the friends (including those I chilled with on my Thanksgiving trip) I still hangout with from Peninsula.
Inspirational Quote:
“Think wrongly, if you please, but in all cases think for yourself.” - Doris Lessing
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