(Okay, so I had to retool this as Kent beat me to the punch. I tried to make my edits non-obvious so your reading flow wouldn’t be interrupted.)

Some of the AutismSpotters and friends got together at The G's.

I got to meet Kevin’s wife Rebecca for the first time. Kevin, like me and many of the other fellows, married “up” – I can say that about a Founder (it looks more important capitalized) with impunity because I learned that Rebecca reads the blogs to him and can edit out for herself anything she wants… so leave that last part out, okay Rebecca? Anyway, it struck me how all of the people at the party were brought together because of something that occurred in the distant past, that being Rebecca and Angie (Potter)’s friendship that started waaaaaaaaay back in their sixth grade year (waaaaaaaaaay back). Their lifelong friendship led to Kent and Kevin’s friendship which led to the birth of AutismSpot (ew, that’s kind of gross when you put it that way… AutismSpot is NOT Kent and Kevin’s lovechild). Now, the rest of the team is helping them to raise it and teach it how to eat, talk, read, and run (not at the same time, though). Interesting how you can trace big things back to something small like that. At least I thought it was, but then again I occasionally get interested in things that aren’t really interesting to others, or so Carrie tells me (frequently).

Like Kent, I made a few awards at the party. For example, Jay won the coveted “Worst Parent” award by allowing his daughter to fall into the pool. I could say something in his defense like it wasn’t his fault and that he was spouse-less with two kids in tow and that just her legs got wet, but I think it’s funnier to just tease him and make like it was a big horrible deal. I almost beat him to that award as Isabella was climbing on rocks at the edge of the pool, teetering on her not-so-stable legs. Serena asked me if she would jump in, and I told her, “No, but she might fall in.” Then I grabbed another pretzel and watched as Isabella leaned way out over the edge to put a leaf down into the water so a drowning bee could have a boat to float on. The bee spurned her help -- the ingrate.

So I probably came in at a close 2nd for the “Worst Parent” because of the above and because I discovered that Isabella had been dropping pebbles into the pool. I counted around twenty of them in there. Sorry about that, Raffi.

Later, after tiring from hauling all of the gravel into the pool, Isabella was fascinated by a set of speakers disguised as a rock. It was pretty cool to me, too. Less impressed was Madeline, sitting next to me on the diving board. She was looking past the rock speakers (hey, I think I get it now!) and getting a tad freaked by the masses of bees visiting the flowering waxleaf ligustrums. I assured her that they only attack when they sense fear, and for some reason she decided it was a good time to sprint into the house.

Other highlights: (like Kent mentioned) Cristina’s awesome Romanian parents brought some awesome homemade Romanian liquor made from apricots called Tuica. Saying “Noroc!” I drank a small bit, waiting for the hammer blow of rotgut to slam me in the throat. It never came. I was shocked at how good it was. I had to take another drink just to be sure… Yep, it was.

In addition to getting Kent’s dessert award, Serena won my “Weirdest But Awesomest Vegetable” award for this thing that I was told was a cross between a broccoli and a cauliflower that had a taste wonderfully absent of cauliflower, a vegetable that typically gives me the dry heaves at the faintest whiff. It was pale green, right? Wrong! It was orange. Makes me a little suspicious… I think broccoli daddy needs to bug cauliflower mommy’s phone to see if Mr. Carrot has been a-callin’. (I’ll be shocked if Carrie let’s this little aside make it through.) (CARRIE EDITORIAL NOTE: My dork husband is thinking of “brocco-flower,” a pale green cross between broccoli and cauliflower. What Serena served was yellow cauliflower. If Matt ever went to the store, he might get a clue. However, he’s so proud of his little funny bit above that I don’t think I’ll tell him.)

And the weather was perfect. It was an all-around great night. Nobody tell Joey, okay? I think he had a pretty good time himself. Let’s just tell him that it was lame and that we just played LD charades all night – not too much to choose from there: “Rain Man,” “Forrest Gump,” … that’s all I can think of. Or, we can tell him that we just played PDD Scrabble or exchanged GFCF recipes all night.

The truth is, with this crowd, I think we would have had fun at that too.