The party began, as always, with people arriving on Friday night. Ben and Autumn's bus came in shortly after ten, and Zach and Sarah were right behind them. Sarah got to work preparing the opossum, which needed to be brined before cooking. We hung out and drank beer until Scotty arrived in his unique way.
Scotty decided to come to Hallowiener at the last minute, so Kevin wanted to keep his attendance a surprise. His plane landed around the same time Ben and Autumn's bus pulled in, and he got a taxi from the airport. We were hanging out in the kitchen, with the front door open in anticipation of Alex, Natalie, Bryan, and Alyssa. Scotty decided to burst in and surprise everyone. Instead he ran smack into the glass door, which remained closed to keep Kina in. Sarah heard the impact and went to investigate, and the surprise came off quite well, if slightly painfully for Scotty.
We set up beer pong and our remaining overnight guests trickled in. Zach and Sarah left early to get some actual sleep before Hallowiener, and I really should have followed their lead. Instead I stayed up until 2:30 with everyone else and naturally woke up shortly after 7.
When everyone else woke up (Zach and Sarah were actually back before this, being early risers like Kevin and me), we made biscuits and gravy and mimosas and played board games. At noon we switched to beer and started getting ready for the party. Some people went for a walk because the weather was perfect (sunny and 60 with bright autumn colors). Other people took naps because they are smarter than me. We fired up the grill at 3 and the rest of the local guests arrived shortly thereafter.
Alex kept a list of all the meats we grilled and ate over the course of the afternoon, which I will reproduce here with my own notes of flavor:
- otter sausage
- Surprisingly delicious, dark rich meat.
- alpaca loin
- Very small, very good. Kind of fatty
- black bear rib
- Super fatty and super delicious. Hard to get off the bones (this is where I gave up carving)
- Python and rabbit sausage
- just a little sour. Would be great with some jalepenos
- Cajun beaver sausage
- also good, but kind of forgettable (Alex actually forgot to include this one on his list)
- water buffalo porter house
- I had to send this back because it was too rare the first time. It came back perfectly medium-rare, very similar to a cow steak
- black bear loin
- Also very fatty and delicious. There was a lot of bear meat
- yakwurst
- Last year's favorite, a pleasant repeat for this year
- arugula, edamame, and cauliflower salad with Sriracha, sesame oil, and soy sauce dressing
- This is what Chev, resident vegetarian, ate
- unagi eel
- The only fish this year, and we had to fillet it ourselves. It was a success!
- white tail deer
- We usually get venison of some sort. I'm not sure if this is the same as what we've always had or not (it probably is). Regardless, it was very good, and not as gamey as I was expecting
- sago worms
- the best of the bugs, by popular consensus, a little earthy
- grasshoppers
- earthy, but also dry and dusty
- silkworm pupae
- basically this was like eating dust, from what I gathered
- stuffed opossum
- a great success. The brining helped, and this was absolutely delicious. Hard to get off the bones though.
- bunny
- It's not Hallowiener without a bunny. We've had one every year
As the locals trickled out, we switched over to drinking games with the traditional round of Dr. Killebrew, which I haven't won in years now. The keg beer is just too cold to chug. I'll need to set aside a cup to warm up a little bit next year. Or is that cheating?
At any rate, the second half of the party was a ton of fun. Alas, my lack of sleep caught up with me, and I was in bed by 9:30. I'm mad at myself for falling asleep so early and missing so much. On the bright side, I got a solid 8 (or 9, thanks to Daylight Saving's Time) hours of sleep and woke up perfectly rested at 5:30 in the morning.
No one else was going to be awake for hours, so I went downstairs to retrieve my tablet and book to occupy myself. I noticed the curtain blowing in and saw that the door to the backyard had been left wide open all night. Kevin and Craig were both sleeping on couches in the living room, so I figured no one had come in to steal anything. I closed the door and went back upstairs.
About five minutes later I vaulted back out of bed and searched the entire house for my cat, Onyx. He was in none of his known hiding places, so I went outside to call for them. My shouts woke up Zach and Sarah, and Zach came down to help. We moved Onyx's food to the door and, with nothing else to be done, went back to bed. I was worried, but Onyx would certainly come back when he got hungry or when the house emptied of strangers.
Around 6:30 it started raining, and it wasn't too long before an irate and soaking Onyx ran upstairs yowling. I dashed down to close the door, and Onyx disappeared to a hiding place to dry off. All told, he probably wasn't outside for more than three hours. So he got a little adventure and made it home safely.
Eventually other people woke up and we poured mimosas and scrounged for breakfast while playing games. I wanted to make sure we killed the keg before everyone left, but it turned out that we very nearly had the night before. There was just enough beer for one side of a 6-cup game of pong. I'm very proud of us for finally buying the right amount of beer for this party.
While we were playing games, I also commented on the lack of mystery puddles. It seems that filling our house with Mudders inevitably ends with a puddle somewhere that I don't want to investigate too closely. But that didn't happen this year! Of course, Chev and Alyssa immediately mentioned the red goo in the downstairs bathroom. I'm still not sure what the deal was here, or even how bad it was. The mess had been mostly cleaned up by the time I went downstairs later in the day.
Ben and Autumn were the last ones to leave, and Jen and Steve were able to stop by briefly and see them, even though they'd had to miss the bulk of the party. We ended the day with Chinese food and one last game of beer pong (there were extra cans in the fridge, just in case). Then we abandoned the mess for the night and went downstairs to watch TV.
I was glad I didn't have to work on Monday. I slept in and then alternated clean-up with television. It was nice to have the extra day to decompress, recover from my hangover, and clean up the house at a slightly slower pace. I also watched half a season of Jane the Virgin, which might be a perfect show. I'm glad the party was such a success this year, and I'm especially glad that we aren't hosting Thanksgiving later this month. I get to relax now, instead of gearing up for the next big party.
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