Jer's victory party

After Jeremi passed his board exam a week ago today, we decided to throw a big party: a keg of beer, a big bowl of sangria, and no less than 13 courses of homemade finger-foods. Saturday was a blur of activity, with Jeremi madly cleaning the apartment while I was busy in the kitchen, with the help of our friend Jenny throughout the afternoon. Jenny took the ferry over on Saturday from Vancouver to help celebrate, as well as helping with both the cooking and cleaning up the next day.

The party as a whole was a great success, with good turn-out and a diverse group of people. Most of the people were linked to either the Navy, my knitting group, or climate research. (Some belonged to more than one group.)

The first of the pictures here is of Gerd, one of my colleagues, who was an invaluable (and sober) presence in the kitchen throughout the evening. The picture here shows him (a non-drinker) opening bottles of wine to prepare a batch of sangria. What's not shown is him carefully tending the cast-iron pan full of bubbling oil a few hours later when I decided that it was time to fry up the spring rolls I'd prepared. Fearing that the drunken host sustaining serious burns or catching her kitchen on fire might ruin the party, Gerd opted to keep an eye on the pan. I'd have to admit that he knew best in this case.

The second picture shows a couch full of knitters. From left, are Kelly, Kelly's date (I don't recall his name), Sharon, Brandy, and Analisa. I have to say that both the Navy community and the scientists were quite pleased when the group of attractive young women showed up all together.

The next picture was taken a bit later in the night, after we'd finished the cheese fondue. Here, Jenny is generously sharing the oma with me. (Oma means grandmother in German, and is the word used in Germany for the cheese that burns to the bottom of the fondue pot. It seems that in Germany people will fight over this last bit of cheese, and I'm grateful to Jenny for being so selfless.)

Finally, the last picture is from even later (and drunker) in the evening, and shows Jeremi and Shannon gamely singing their hearts out to Meatloaf, I do believe. At the right is Steve, who may well claim that he wasn't singing along, but I doubt that's true. For that matter, Shannon may even deny it. But as for Jeremi, there's no denying you're doing a little Meatloaf-karaoke with a face like that.

Now after he passed his exam Jeremi is supposed to get a shore posting, but since his new posting message hasn't yet officially arrived, he still "belongs" to the Calgary. As such, he's away with the ship right now en route to Seattle for the weekend. Since there's not much for him to do there, he's taking vacation next week and he'll be paying his own way home on the ferry on Sunday. (His ship is out at sea for another week after that.) He has to use up the vacation before the end of March anyhow, and this way he gets to spend more time at home. I was very unimpressed that he had to leave again after passing the exam, especially as I got to spend yet another Valentine's day alone, thanks to the Navy. Two years ago we were actually in the same city, but he found out on the 13th that he was being posted to Victoria against his request. I will be so happy when he finally "belongs" to himself and not to the military. But he should be home for a while after this, which will be nice!