Crabble!

One of the first things we did when I came to visit Kevin in DC way back in 2008 was go to an all-you-can crab place. I'd never had crabs before, and Kevin was excited to share with me one of his favorite foods. I had three crabs that afternoon, while Kevin sat at the table and ate crabs for three hours.

We still make sure to eat crabs once a year, but this has changed from something we go out to do to a party we throw at our house. Where I can drink beer and hang out friends and eat something other than crabs which are not, in my opinion, worth the effort.

With more friends and tighter schedules, it's becoming harder to schedule things like this. Especially in the summer. But we did find a weekend when most people were free, and when Ben, Autumn, and Alex were able to come down from NYC. The addition of out-of-town guests morphed this from an afternoon party to a full weekend extravaganza.

Ben and Autumn arrived at our house late on Friday night. We had a few beers and visited for a bit, but it wasn't long before exhaustion took over and we went to bed. The next morning we had plans to meet the rest of our group at the National Building Museum for their "beach" exhibit: essentially a gigantic ball pit. We woke up early, and I made shakshuka for breakfast. I've been wanting to make it since we went to NYC last month, and we finally had guests I could make it for. We'll get better flatbread next time, but it was enough of a success that I'm putting it in the rotation.

We ended up at the museum half an hour before it opened. This was good. The exhibit is popular, and by getting there so early we were close to the head of the line, able to get tickets and go right in. Kevin hung back to give tickets to the other half of the group, and we spent some time playing in the ball pit. It was enormous and almost waist deep in some places. I had a really hard time standing up once I'd sat down, or even keeping my head above the balls. After the novelty wore off we wandered around the rest of the museum, which had some pretty cool architectural models and a fun exhibit on the differences between houses and homes, as presented through the history of housing in America.

Just before noon, Kevin and I departed to pick up the crabs. We went to the Fish Market, which wasn't as big as I'd been expecting. It was really cool. Boats full of fish pull up to the dock and you buy seafood right off of them. Then it was off to get a keg and prepare the shrimp boil. The shrimp boil was a great addition to this party, especially for people like me who aren't too fond of crabs. Basically, you boil a bunch of potatoes, corn, onions, sausage, and shrimp in water that's been heavily seasoned with Old Bay. It's just a tad spicy and all around delicious and easy to eat.

People started arriving around 3, and we sat in the backyard, eating and drinking beer, until some time after 7. We had 16 people at our house, and I'm actually a little surprised we managed to fit that many in the backyard. But with two tables it worked out pretty well. Still, our parties are beginning to outgrow our house. I think it's time to start thinking about upsizing. (No, it's not. But it will be before too much longer.)

When the sun went down (well, a little before) we transitioned to beer pong. Alex and I did a good job of crushing other teams for a while. Then Autumn and I had a good winning streak until I abandoned her to get some sleep.

At one point, the guys became convinced that we were going to run out of beer. Several of them spent a long time taking turns lifting the keg and trying to determine how much beer was left. It was finally decided that we were nearly out of beer and that we had better go pick up some more while there were still sober drivers around. Ben went can came back with three cases. The next morning we discovered that the keg had not really been in danger of running out. In fact, we didn't actually finish it until some time in the afternoon, and that took a concerted effort (it didn't help that the beer was warm and going flat by then).

Sunday morning was filled with mimosas and board games. We played games we haven't played in years, which was a lot of fun. And we laughed at Kina's attempts to carry a pig ear around the house. Then she tried to bury the pig ear using her bed and Alex's shirt. At which point we noticed that Alex's shirt was damp and smelled. As did Kina's dog bed. We couldn't figure out if it was beer or urine (it was probably beer), and rather than running an extensive investigation I threw everything in the washing machine. Which both ruined the dog bed and revealed a mysterious puddle of liquid on the lower shelf of the table behind the bed. I still can't fathom how it happened. It's a very awkward spot to spill a drink, but it's not like peeing there made any more sense. We cleaned it up and spent some time reminiscing about the other mystery puddles from our drunken adventures over the years. I don't think this one will ever be solved.

People started drifting out in the afternoon. We miraculously got the house cleaned up in less than three hours, which I believe is some sort of record for Kevin and me. Usually it takes a week to get the house back in shape. But with the cleaning people coming to mop and dust the next day, I was motivated to clean up as much as I could.

And now we rest until Hallowiener. After which I'm seriously considering taking the Monday off to help recover.