8/14/2011 A Farewell Dinner

At five thirty we gathered at Jerry & Valerie’s for a delicious lasagna dinner made by none other than Jerry. Valerie bakes, she doesn’t cook. I’ll tell ya more about that later.

Yes, this is a farewell dinner. Our co-camp hosts, Gary and Shari are leaving. As I stated in an earlier post it isn’t my story to tell so I’ll just leave it as they are going ahead of schedule.

We each had something to contribute to the dinner, Jerry made the lasagna, I made the salads and Shari brought the bread.

The lasagna and meatballs were to die for! Jerry can cook for us anytime! We ate our first go round and I do believe most of us went back for seconds.

Ghost, Jerry & Val’s dog, was standing by in case something slipped to the ground.

Tummies full, we sat for a while just shootin’ the breeze. Jerry came and gathered our plates and silverware and then I heard him announce, “Well, that was easy, dishes are done!”

Now I’ll finish telling you about our non-cooking friend Valerie. We all give her such a hard time but its all in fun.

She has shared many baked goodies with us but nothing of your typical breakfast, lunch or dinner meals. Therefore, she doesn’t cook. Need more proof? The two of them eat at the dining facility here on base on nearly every night of the week for dinner. Poor Jerry, Valerie doesn’t cook.

Jerry came over to our place about two weeks ago and I was in the middle of cooking dinner. I forget what I was making but it must have been aromatic because he really sniffed the air and exclaimed, “That smells good!”

After our dinner the wheels in my mind started turning and I thought of another way to give poor Val a hard time again.

I went over to their place and rapped loudly on the door. Val answered and I let her know in no uncertain terms that we had to talk. She asked if I was going to yell at her and I told her probably.

I said, “Valerie, you should be ashamed of yourself! Jerry came over earlier while I was cooking dinner and he was so intrigued with what I was doing. Do you know that I held up a spatula and he said, “What’s that?” He then started for my stove with his hand outstretched and I had to grab him by the arm and pull him back and yell, “Jerry! No! HOT!” Well, by now, Valerie is all but rollin'! Ever since that day when I go over to their place Jerry holds up a spatula and says, “Spatula!” and we laugh all over again.

It looks like this couple may be joining us in the warm winter climate of the southwest sometime after Christmas. At least we are hoping they are. These two have definitely made our “forever friends” list.