Notice that I said 'primary social worker.' I got a call from another nice lady at Children's who is also our social worker. From what I gather, she oversees yet another social worker who will help us prepare our dossier for Colombia. So much for corporate structure! Or, we have confounded Children's so much that they require three social workers to keep up with us.
I have no idea who's who at this point. Just give us a map, folks, and we'll get at it.
She did give a bit of hope about the various processes - social worker #2, that is. We will be handed our child almost immediately when we get to Bogota. Then, 1 week later, we will meet with a social worker from the orphanage who will evaluate the bonding process. She said it generally takes the courts a week to review our file and confirm we are okay to adopt. However, she confirmed we will be there for 6 weeks, so I don't have my mind completely wrapped around the process.
So, we busy ourselves. This weekend was no exception. Friday started out with a dinner party with some very good friends. Sarah, the best man at my wedding, had suggested a good way to force ourselves to all get together would be to do some common good. We have formed a group under the organization Kiva, which provides small business loans in poor and underdeveloped nations. We will all pitch in a few bucks so that a baker in Afghanistan or a tailor in Uganda can start their business. They will pay back their loan, and we will reinvest in another person's business. I have heard the idea before, but kudos go out to Sarah for getting us to action.
So, there was good works, but there was also food, wine and beer: The breakfast of Chumpions. A fun time was had by all. The only problem - Joe ate all my tapioca! Kidding. I'm glad the dessert I brought was well received!
Saturday started out a bit more laid-back. I caught up on some laundry. Angie did some cleaning around the house. Our front windows tend to take a beating, because our beautiful cattle-dog tends to snarf on them as he stares longingly outside, looking to run free.
I had a piece up at the mosaic shop that I was looking to finish. I popped up there around 2pm, and made the rounds to look at other peoples work. It's part of the unwritten code of the studio that you must compliment everyone before you start working - plus, it's a good way to get a few ideas for new projects.
My project was another colored-glass type piece. My only disappointment with my last piece is that it looks a little dark. I wanted the next piece to be back-lit. My idea was to put the piece on a shadow box and wire a light behind it. So, I grouted the piece at the studio, and brought it back to my garage workshop. I had an old table leaf that I had saved from the scrap-heap that I chopped up to make the box. The light wired in easily - I had picked up a 'Make your own lamp' kit from Menards. A couple of screws one quick Snap, and it was all together. Check out the finished product below:
The photo doesn't really do it justice - thank you, cell phone camera. But I am really happy with how it turned out. I think I will try to do another soon.
Sunday was a day that I was first worried about, but it turned out very well. We've never had a real dinner party over at our house - so I got a bit nervous. But I've always wanted to show off a few dishes I had up my sleeves, so I warmed up to the idea. I whipped out a basil-marinara sauce I'd played around with over the summer, and let it simmer for a few hours. I had been experimenting with a stuffing for chicken - onions and celery, with apple for a bit of sweetness, and cranberries for a bit of tartness, with some sage thrown in for good measure. A LOT of sage. At the last minute, I decided the only thing it was lacking was walnuts.
The last dish is the eye-popper - celery-root casserole. What is celery root? This:
Suprisingly, all the dishes were finished at the same time, a few minutes after everyone arrived. My favorite comment was from my father-in-law: 'That was some stuffing. Really nouveau."
