Breakfast was served at 8:30 am. There were five people in the "core" group of the party. We had other visitors - some more long-term than others - but Raspberry, Banana, Strawberry, Blueberry, and Walnut were there to both start and end the day. Raspberry made the breadpudding which we feasted on for breakfast and we raided Banana's store of tea. After a very tasty breakfast, we hunkered down on the couch in the TV watching room to start our Middle Earth adventure. The Fellowship of the Ring was viewed with much commentary and laughter. The close quarters of a couch make for jovial times. :)
A picnic lunch was planned. We had a couple of false starts, but we did eventually get on our way.
We were certainly an interesting group. Walnut led the way across the field, bearing a backpack which contained the carrots, plates, forks, water bottles, and his birthday present. My sister and I were carrying the quiches, and Raspberry has Maxine in hand...her faithful but temperamental guitar. The Strawberry was laiden down with the potato chips. When we emerged from the brush on the far side of the field, we encountered a city worker. He must have thought that he had gotten stuck in a time warp back to the age of the hippies. I was wearing a long denim skirt and my long hair was blowing around. We were carrying a lot of food...and a guitar. I'm sure we made his afternoon. :)
The picnic was a success. We ate the wonderful food that was the handiwork of Banana and the cookies that I happened to be successful with. Afterwards, the guitar was handed off to the birthday boy and the girls laid down on their backs and sang. It was really quite pleasant. We were lying in a fashion that put one person's head on another person's stomach and so every time you laughed the person's head would bounce around. This would cause the other person to laugh...and once that vicious cycle got started, it took a while for it to stop.
Walking back with full stomaches and empty dishes, we were getting pretty warm. The day was toasty, but we found ourselves a remedy: running wildly through sprinklers. We had a very short, rather lame game of tag during which all but one of us got sopping wet. That made the walk home much more pleasant, but it didn't make the sidewalk any cooler. And the barefooted hobbits got some scorched feet. But we didn't care - we were having fun.
The viewing of The Two Towers commenced when we arrived back at the wonderfully air conditioned apartment. Sitting around in wet clothes is slightly uncomfortable... but LOTR is a fantastic distraction.
Because of the enormous amount of time it takes to watch the extended editions, we didn't take a break for dinner, but we managed to have a scrumptious one while viewing the movies. We did, however, take a break to eat cake and for Walnut to distribute presents (for anyone familiar with hobbit tradition, this makes sense). The sung happy birthday was in multiple keys, but it was very heartfelt and very appreciated by our resident hobbit.
We did finish watching the movies before midnight...by fifteen minutes. Our core group was still alive, talking, and deliciously content. We'd had way too much food, way too much television time, and just the right amount of comradely squashing on the couch. :D
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