More camp out happiness

Well the rest of the afternoon passed easily, as it always does when friends get together - laughing, talking, teasing, and just enjoying each other's company. Before I knew it, it was time to get ready for the banquet at 6:30.

Russ brought a camo kilt for me to try on. It was pretty cool, but a bit big on me. The best thing about it was the pockets. It's a utili-kilt so it's a bit more user-friendly than a regular kilt. I have a sport kilt that I love, but this one has belt loops and pockets. It was really nice to have some place to carry my smokes.

While the announcements were being done, I sneaked out to the screen porch and sliced the desserts so they would be ready to serve when we were through eating. My pound cake seemed to have a good crust, and the icing on the flourless chocoloate cake had softened up, thank goodness. By the time I got the chocolate sprinkles on it, and dusted it with sweetened cocoa, it looked pretty impressive, I have to say.

Dinner was good. Eric takes that on every time, and God bless him for doing it. It is a TON of work, and I personally love to cook, but I'd rather spend the time having fun than be in the kitchen all afternoon. Plus I don't cook meat, so they don't ask me to do the dinner part. I am really grateful for Eric.

After the dinner dishes were cleared, I put out the desserts. They went over very well. The flourless chocolate cake disappeared almost immediately (there were only 16 pieces of that, and it was my "feature" this time). I tasted the pound cake later, and I think it was one of the best I have ever made. The texture was perfect. I only got two negative comments. Russ said he thought the new recipe was too lemony, as did Lady Beth. Personally, I thought the flavor was wonderful. A lot of people don't realize that "plain" pound cake has lemon flavoring in it, but Lady Beth has asked me about it this afternoon. I don't "sneak" things in people's food, because I don't want them sneaking things in mine. This recipe does call for more lemon than my other recipe does, but it didn't taste strong to me. I did have a two different people tell me how wonderful it was too. So now I don't know what to do. On the one hand, I suspect that if they hadn't known that the lemon was in there, they wouldn't have made that complaint. Also, I don't believe in fiddling with the classics. When I do something unique, I play with it, but when you make a classic dessert, people want it to taste the way they remember it. I'm afraid the cake will taste "flat" if I take the lemon flavoring out. Not sure what I'll do about that. I did notice that every piece was eaten though.

The dungeon was really busy tonight. Seems like everyone wanted to play. Most of the time there were people waiting for a place, or watching other scenes. Russ did a really cool scene with our friends Miss Heather and miles. Miss Heather had been telling miles she was going to brand or mark him for years, and their 20th anniversary is coming up, so she told him tonight was the night. She had Russ get a brand all ready, shave him, etc, while miles was blindfolded in the sling. He had seen the branding iron Russ made, and saw it heating up when he came over to start the scene. But Miss Heather wasn't really going to brand him. Russ did the whole scene, then put the branding iron in ice before he touched it to miles. When he did it, we threw a handful of ice into a hot frying pan for sizzle and everyone screamed! It was SO funny, and miles was a really good sport about the whole thing. I think he was very relieved.

Russ also did fire play with a new guy who was there with his girlfriend. He is totally new to the life, and she was surprised he was open to doing as much play as they did this weekend. His name is dan. I don't remember hers. But they were really nice, and I hope they'll come back. Sadly, dan is suffering from Parkinson's Disease, which has apparently struck him very young. I'm glad he's still out doing new things and enjoying life.

Miss Kat came too (shooting sparks as she walked through the door), although sadly, dana didn't feel well. But she played with lori, and they had a really good time.

There were floggings, and needles, and all those delightful little evil things that make hearts pound. It was a great evening. I didn't get to play tonight, and I would have liked to, but Billy was all worn out by the time there was a place to do it. Plus he has done a lot of work putting this together, since he's on the board. Miss Kat was still too keyed up to play with me (I still kind of need training wheels), and my nipples were still too sore from last night to play with Mz Kytten again (her dance card was full anyway). Sometimes that's the way it goes. I still had a lovely time.