A Night With Roast Pork and Green Peppercorn Sauce

Last night we had Aaron & Bubbles over as well as assorted Rozboom's and/or Rozboom relations over for dinner. Here we see the happy couple in a lovers tiff. Apparently they were fighting over the last piece of chocolate covered bacon.
We made roast pork with green peppercorn sauce for dinner, with roast green beans and corn. Desert was an amuse bouche of chocolate covered bacon and a main desert of chocolate lavender cake.
And here we have Bert and Kryna Pohl who drove in from Canada just for dinner. Yeah, I guess they're also in town for a wedding or something.
Aaron's sister Lanette is in town with her two kids, we can see the top of young James head here. Here is a woman who knows how to parent kids, I'm here to tell you. And the Birn's rejoice.
Here we have Mrs. R and Bubbles. Mrs. R seems to be the brains behind this wedding, from what I can gather she has lists of things for everyone to do and they will be done. We enjoyed having her over, as we did all the assorted Rozboom's and their relations.
And here we have young James playing with our Stuart. They seemed to get along quite well, which we're very pleased about. James liked the puppies as well, and the peasants rejoiced!
How about a fairly nice picture of the happy couple. We all look forward to Aaron and Bubbles wedding on Saturday. May the Lord bless them with many years of marital bliss and at least half a dozen children. Be fruitful and multiply!

17 Carats and Counting

On Monday we went up to my folks beach house in Ludington for the day. It was my first and only day off this summer. Such is the life of a lawyer. In any event, the lake was surprisingly cold, colder than it was earlier in the season.
Stuart wasn't to keen on the lake, the waves were a little rough for him and the water was far to cold. Maybe next year he'll be able to go for another swim.
Stuart's great-grandmother was in town for the week, which is why we headed up north on Monday. Stuart apparently was more interested in Zoe the dog than his great-grandmother.
Today Janna turned her back for one minute and this is the trouble Stuart got himself into. Not pictured is the dog bowl, complete with a towel placed in it that Stuart pushed all the way over to the sink area. High entertainments for Stuart, for the time being that is. Give him a year and he'll have to clean this sort of mess up. No, give him a few months.

Downtown GR

It's been a beautiful weekend here in GR so on Saturday we decided to head downtown for a little walk. Stuart was of course thrilled to see something other than our neighborhood.
We went to see the new hotel, which really isn't all that special. It's nice for Grand Rapids and all but let's face facts, it's a small town hotel. Nicer than the Days Inn but it doesn't hold a candle to any of the three star hotels in Chicago or New York.
We got to see my old apartment building. This December it will be four years since I lived there. I held my first party there, an election night extravaganza. Janna was actually there that night, she brought Tiramisu. We would laugh at and scoff at what she brought that night, it was little more than whipped cream, coffee and ladyfingers. No rum at all. But it was good back then. Ray stayed until 2am, declaring that he wanted to see 'his President' re-elected. I remember thanking God 2004 wasn't a repeat of 2000, Ray would have camped out in front of my television for a month. Fun times. Sadly there isn't anything else to share from the weekend. Stuart behaved at church today and we generally did nothing. Things will pick up a couple weeks from now I suspect.

Our Weekend

Our weekend began with a trip to a park out in Grandville. Stuart enjoyed going on the swing very much.
After we played on the swings for awhile we went for a walk and saw some ducks. Janna had some crackers with her so Stuart got to feed the ducks. Ducks are an interesting creature, not much interested in man unless he offers a cracker or bread.
After the walk Stuart couldn't resist a ride on the big purple dinosaur. This dinosaur is no wimpy Barney, he looks like a purple T-Rex to me.
On the Sabbath we had the Anderson's, Carr's and B over for lunch. We beg the Carr's forgiveness, I broke the camera out after they had already left. It's my fault, I admit it. I forgot all about the camera until after it was to late. Stuart got to play with Shawn, who proves to be quite the entertainer for the kid.
Dinner consisted of grilled lamb, garlic and olive oil mashed potatoes, haricot verts and a desert trio of chocolate creme brule, basil ice cream and burnt caramel with sea salt. It seemed to go over pretty well, I love the smokiness of the lamb grilled over a charcoal flame and Janna's desert was pretty darn good.
Let the record reflect that we do have a picture of B in what looks like new eye glasses. But we won't put the picture up because we don't want to outrage him. In any event, it was a great blessing having Christian fellowship at lunch today. We hope everyone had as much fun as we did.