Walk Softly and Carry a Big Schtick

So, let's talk about the last of the trio of parties I helped host at Hanadoki Con. That would be the "VIP Party" on Saturday night, which had a lot of the guests and many of the staff and "usual suspects." It was a big bash on the top floor, with a live band, video game, Adrian the bartender, and a photography backdrop. For this, I did "food on sticks" with fruit kebabs, veg kebabs, meat/cheese kebabs, and Little Smokies in BBQ sauce. Plus two coolers of soft drinks. I had a couple of pitchers of iced tea and limeade, but not much happened with them.

For this party, I went shopping, and then a number of fans (Steve Roberts and Allison's minions Elena and Alexa) helped with cutting up things and putting them on skewers. We also rounded up a small squad to carry everything upstairs in time for the party.

I am very grateful for all that help because it gave me a chance to shower and change! We used my fancy platters and doilies, and really tried to make it all look classy.

The challenging thing for me, about doing these three parties one night after the next, was they all used different equipment. It's not like having a couple of parties that all use the same crockpots, or what have you. We were washing a lot of dishes over the course of the weekend and they weren't the same sets of dishes!

What this means in practical terms is I ended up using two carloads of party gear. If I had it to do all over again (and I probably wouldn't want to, quite) I'd make one of my personal requirements to get additional cargo capacity arranged, plus (as I think I mentioned earlier) more staff to help make it happen.

Photos posted:
LASFS/Aftermeetings part 545: Coral Cafe (24-Oct-2013) et seq.
Caroline's Halloween Housewarming Birthday Party (26-Oct-2013)
Halloween Parties Unlimited 2013 (26-Oct-2013) Part 1 et seq.
Cosplay Sewing Circle part 4: November (03-Nov-2013) et seq.

Photos now online:
Julia's Clue Party (18-Jul-2009)

As you can see, divine_sage, little_serenity, daoutlaw, chiyo_no_hikari, simmaria, hyper_sam, magi_sammy, legally_scarlet, ivyf15, and summoner_lenne9 were all at the party...

This was an interesting party. The announcement invited us all to pick a character from Clue -- the board game, the movie, the DVD game, or some other incarnation (Cluedo anyone?). After watching the movie, a bunch of the party guests played the DVD-enhanced version of the board game.

Because I knew library_lynn and I would arrive late -- I had a cosplay picnic to go to, and Lynn had to work -- I stopped by in the morning before the picnic to drop off of a crockpot of cocktail meatballs. The recipe calls for grape jelly, which fit the whole "purple" theme that Lynn (Lady Lavender) and I (Professor Plum) were going for. I had a 4-lb. bag of chicken/beef meatballs, and a couple jars of chili sauce and grape jelly.

I wish I'd brought an extra crockpot or two. We could have heated up some of the meatballs separately and had them with the spaghetti that was being served. Oh well!

I've offered Julia my full support the next time she wants help with party logistics. (Of course, she's headed out of state for college, so probably she won't need my assistance any time soon.)

The party included chocolate birthday cake -- it was a late celebration of Julia's 18th -- and there was ice cream to go with it. I brought pink lemonade, but mixed up too much. I think I need to start packing my airpot so I can mix up a gallon or two of ice cold lemonade and serve it, rather than using the 10-gallon barrel cooler or regular plastic pitchers!

Just about everyone at the party had some kind of closet costume. For me, it was a purple dress shirt and my M.C.Escher purple gecko tie. With the possible exception of Miss Scarlett draping herself across Col. Mustard's lap (right), nobody made much of an attempt to stay in character, which was a relief -- I hadn't seen the movie, and had decided that my interpretation of Prof. Plum would be a gentleman who would never use a short simple word when two or three multisyllabic synonyms would suffice. With possibly a touch of Mrs. Malaprop thrown in. I remember that it required considerable forethought and some practice in the form of a silent recitation to one's self within the quiet confines of one's own cranium to present that particular persona. Not easily done without at least some training and experience in improvisational theater.