Everyone brought cheese and repaired the faucet at the Halloween Tea

Sometimes you just have to laugh at life and all of the plans we make. My company arrived just as I was getting the food laid out on the table and they dropped a hostess gift, a computer project,4 kinds of cheese, muffins and yogurt in the middle of it which of course changed things a lot. I never got the chance to set the salad out and in the middle of the mayhem (three different deliveries and a phone call) and I discovered that the shrimp ring hadn't been thawed.
Ordinarily this would not be a problem, you can thaw it in minutes under running water but there hasn't been any running water in the kitchen for over a week while we were waiting for parts to repair the faucet unless you count the 2 inches of water shooting EVERYWHERE  and rolling down the basement stairs when the shut off valve under the sink gave out. (more about that on Doug's blog). The good news is the parts arrived, the bad news is that he installed them DURING THE PARTY.
Anyway, there were suddenly 5 kinds of cheese and a computer project(which of course is another story) in the middle of the table for the salami taste test. (same brand but one package of lite and one reduced sodium) It was interesting to compare the numbers and most preferred the lite and there was also the question of  whether or not to cancel our pie taste test ( one regular and one diabetic friendly version) after the muffins and having spent our morning baking.
The crackers (for those of us who still eat them) were a number of different choices and I was surprised to find that my favorite was Blue Diamond Natural Almond Nut Thins which are a nut and rice cracker snack.
the calorie count per serving was the same as Back to Nature Spinach and Roasted Garlic Crackers but you only get 6 of the wheat crackers per serving as opposed to 16 of the rice ones. I don't know about you but if I'm trying to diet a larger portion is going to help me feel like I'm eating more and being deprived less so I was excited about that as well as the fact that they are gluten free which is important to a lot of people these days too.
What does any of this have to do with gardening or painting?... which of course are the main subjects of this blog. Actually a couple of things, if the weather had been better we'd have headed to the garden to pick rose hips to make tea with (you can use fresh ones, chopped and boiled) and now that the party is over I get my work table back and have and least 3 painting projects I'll be working on.
What's next? Follow the blog and find out. There's always something going on around here and generally lots of things at once. Thanks for stopping by to visit with me, come again soon.
The big excitement for me right now is that I just discovered that Zazzle is going to do wrapping paper and I can't wait to see some of my designs on it!!!