I'm glad that I already decided this would be our last year to host the Neighborhood Night Out. Last year it had an OK attendance, but I thought that by having it in the afternoon this year and making it an ice cream social, more people might come. (So far I've had 3 RSVPs...nobody officially responded last year, I don't think, and about a dozen people showed up)
It really sounds like a nice, neighborly, sociable thing to do. There are more than 100 parties this year all around the city, a significant rise from last year (when there were 60-some parties). The city gives you lots of goodies, most of which will ultimately end up in the garbage, I'm sure, but they include refrigerator magnets with city phone numbers, booklets about fire safety, information on H1N1, balloons, glowsticks and a big sign to put on the lawn. Last year there were a couple dozen pens so people could sign a sign-up sheet, but this year they didn't include the pens, just gave us the sign-up sheets.
But packet also included a gift certificate to the Davis Food Co-op for $25 to help purchase supplies for the party. I think that was about what I spent last year, as I bought ingredients and made my own hors d'oeuvres and people also brought stuff.
Well...I've discovered that ice cream for a neighborhood ain't cheap (especially at the co-op, which has "good" stuff, not cheap stuff)! Just four large containers (48 oz) of ice cream alone is more than $25 (and I'm not sure if 4 containers is going to be enough--but it has to be). But add to that cups, cones, chocolate syrup, nuts, and whipped cream and we're getting into real money for people I don't even know at all.
The final tally -- and this included a few things for us, that won't be at the party, like dinner tonight and tomorrow night) was over $80. The gift certificate helped, but by no means did it begin to cover the cost. We still have go buy ice in the morning. I had intended to buy more ice cream somewhere else where I could get a vat cheaper, but we're going to have to go with what I have.
Now I did ask for this to be a pot luck, and it's entirely possible that people are going to bring ice cream to contribute. One person offered to bring ice cream and I told her to bring some sort of topping and maybe cookies to go with the ice cream.
But bottom line is it ain't cheap and while I knew going into this that I would be spending money on it, as I said earlier, I'm glad this is the last year we'll be hosting. Time for someone else to step up to the plate and have a turn.
Realizing that there was a very good possibility that Higgins and/or Freddie might be adopted today, I tried taking some better pictures. I wasn't able to corner Freddie, but I really like this one of Higgins.
At the appointed hour, we drove the boys up to Petco (finding out later that Ashley had misunderstood me and thought I was asking when the puppies were going to be neutered--the boys this week and Eliza next week. I thought she said she only wanted boys at Petco this week and I could bring Eliza next week...so we left Eliza home).
When we got there, all the other siblings were already in the cage--and what a sight it was!
I'm not sure how many were in the cage--but I think it was 8 or 9. There was, of course, no grand reunion. They could all care less about the two "strangers" added to the pile. We came on home and awaited news of our babies.
When we got back to PETCO at 3:30, none of the puppies had been adopted, so we were happy to bring them both back home again, none the worse for their experiences. So they're here again for at least another week.
I'm glad.
No comments:
Post a Comment