Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

This really is a full service blog.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

Everybody saw this coming.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Fight them, without becoming them!

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Motown is Joe-Town!

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

The current Supreme Court is a rogue court. Very dangerous.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House" / It Takes a Village

It Takes a Village

by | 70 Comments

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To cater a wedding. Just got back from the wedding (which is literally across the alley in my dad’s back yard with the reception Gerald’s backyard next door). It was very nice, and I will post some more pictures in a bit. but thought I would share a picture or two right now. First, the scramble to get all the quiches and salads and fruit bowls and everything else plated:

That’s a neighbor Anita, my mom, one of Gerald’s kids, Tammy, and my dad. And not the cake:

As pretty as it was, it tasted even better! My dad is a man of many talents.

Reader Interactions

70Comments

  1. 1.

    jl

    Thanks for party and cake pix. Normally I am a sucker for rich cake with gobs of rich icing.
    But just got back from farmers market and ate too much there.
    Was in the mood for pet pix.

    So, thanks for trying, but, dude, another ‘full-service’ blog fail, sorry to say. Hope the wedding and party weekend continues to go well.

    Edit: and please not pix of pets eating… I really ate way too much at the farmers market.

  4. 4.

    Ruckus

    I like that your house isn’t a mcmansion, with a kitchen larger than the entire downstairs of my last house. It’s one where 5 people is a crowd but still fit. Somehow that seems proper for a house. I’ve lived in about 200-250 sq ft for the last 11 yrs, in three different places. It’s more than enough room. Unless one is a greedy fuck.

  7. 7.

    jl

    @schrodingers_cat: Cake does look awesome, and normally I’d complain about not being able to get at it through the computer screen. But, just not right now, for me at least.

  17. 17.

    stinger

    That cake is beautiful, and I love the little green heart on top! I also admire the simplicity of the wooden table and chairs and the table runner and the beadboard paneling. If that’s your parents’ house, now I want to see it as much as I want to see your new place and Barn with Inn.

  20. 20.

    Ruckus

    @John Cole:
    Thank You!
    My original comment still holds, as I remember your kitchen is about the same size. And I only implied that this was your kitchen, didn’t actually say it. But as you say, still a Cole kitchen.

  22. 22.

    Ruckus

    @Baud:
    Some of us are not coffee snobs.
    Actually some of us can’t stand coffee. Love the smell of fresh roasting coffee. The taste makes me gag. Growing up my next door neighbors, he retired from decades of working for Standard Oil, spoke 5 languages – which seem exotic to me at the time, an American speaking 5 languages, would still get up early every morning, grind beans and make coffee. A glorious smell to wake up to in the morning. Still can’t stand to drink it.

  25. 25.

    Ruckus

    @jl:
    You may be one of the few sour old pusses – this day. But of course I believe that means you are not in the minority of the community. That’s why we normally get along, mostly we all understand being a sour old puss.

  26. 26.

    jl

    @Ruckus: I ate too much. I need to waddle off now. If I can get up. If I disappear from this thread, then it worked. OK.. three deep breaths and I’ll see if I can get up out of the chair.

  28. 28.

    trollhattan

    @Ruckus:
    Definitely an acquired taste/habit. When a kid I could drink coffee if I drowned it in enough sugar and cream/stuff imitating cream that it was closer to melted ice cream. Work forced me into regular coffee and after imitating my kid-era habit finally discovered properly roasted and brewed brew and learned to love it black. Now it’s espresso or go home.

    When a kid I loved the smell from a freshly opened coffee can (via winding a key to pull off the metal band). I also liked the smell of a freshly lit cigarette but hated it 10 seconds later, probably assuring my not acquiring my parents’ habit. Certain smells can transmit me back to childhood, instantly.

  31. 31.

    Fair Economist

    @Ruckus: I think almost everybody loves the smell of coffee, whether or not they like the beverage. My dad also loved the smell but hated coffee. I liked coffee only with lots of milk and sugar; now that I’ve largely sworn off sugar I’ve learned to enjoy it with milk only but I still can’t take it black.

  35. 35.

    Davebo

    Let’s see. Cole certainly didn’t inherit his Dad’s interior design or baking skills.

    Just curious John. When you were a kid did the milkman have a poorly decorated home with no proper upright mixer in the kitchen???

  36. 36.

    JMG

    Congratulations to the happy coupleI It wasn’t until I went away to college I learned people put anything in their coffee. Our household drank it straight black and I still do. We grind our own beans.

  37. 37.

    efgoldman

    @Ruckus:

    A glorious smell to wake up to in the morning. Still can’t stand to drink it.

    I only drink iced coffee, have for decades.
    One highway exit before mine there’s a small coffee roaster/packaging company. Depending which way the breeze is blowing, you can smell it for miles. At least once a day, apparently, they burn whatever’s in the roaster. Really awful smell.

  38. 38.

    Davebo

    @JMG: My sister puts 8 teaspoons of sugar in her coffee. She literally has a little coffee with her sugar in the morning.

    When my parents married Dad took cream and sugar in his coffee. Mom drank it black (as it is meant to be consumed). He now does too since she refused to add stuff for him.

  40. 40.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Ruckus:

    spoke 5 languages – which seem exotic to me at the time, an American speaking 5 languages,

    That’s still quite exotic for an American. Consider that 2 of our last 3 presidents have struggled mightily with their native English.

  41. 41.

    No Drought No More

    That’s a beautiful little kitchen. I love the window, and those chairs with their 10 count ’em 10 “spokes” per chair complement that handsome table and look great, too

  42. 42.

    schrodingers_cat

    @John Cole: Actually it wasn’t. I really love the kitchen and the hallway and the dining room. Your home is still a work in progress and it is in much better shape than my house which I moved into slightly after you bought your home. My home is disorganized mess with some boxes still unpacked.

  43. 43.

    JPL

    Please add more pictures, and congrats to the happy couple. As @trollhattan: says, we need more happy events. Your father is amazing but you already know that.

  44. 44.

    trollhattan

    @efgoldman:
    Ten or more years ago they sold a Japanese appliance would basically cook breakfast–grind and brew coffee, toast the bread, fry the egg and cook the bacon based on a timer.

    I wanted one just to wake up to the fragrance, but as a cereal guy would have probably just had the coffee.

  46. 46.

    Ruckus

    @trollhattan:
    You’d hate my life then. I can’t smell or taste anymore. All gone over the last 6-8 yrs. I can tell if something is flat, iow has no salt, or if it is sweet, sour or bitter because these are detected by different areas of the tongue, but actual taste? Nope, None. It’s texture all the way now. A dead rotted fish? Way too much garlic or onion? Smell/taste doesn’t bother me at all. Cig smoke still is arid and bothers my nose/sinus but doesn’t stink any longer. You smell fire, something burning? I don’t but the arid sensation is still there.

  47. 47.

    StringOnAStick

    Has your dad made multi tier cakes before? That’s tricky stuff to do so many kudos to him. Plus I love the idea of a family- and friend-sourced wedding feast. That’s the way to do it for sure. I saw somewhere recently that the average cost of a wedding in the US is $30,000; pure insanity!

  50. 50.

    bystander

    Buster, our late French bulldog, loved coffee and would always bug you until you gave him a finger dipped in coffee. And by bugging I mean try to stick his mug in the mug.

  52. 52.

    trollhattan

    @Ruckus:
    Wow, I’d be devastated. I know my mom lost some of her capacity to smell and taste as previously loved foods were spurned and by contrast, certain odors would really set her off. I didn’t understand the physiology or process, but pondered how she was robbed of things she loved.

  53. 53.

    SFBayAreaGal

    @trollhattan: Last year I bought for me and my family a 1/2 pound each of Jamaican Blue Moutain and Kona coffee. It was the cheapest I had seen in years. Jamaican Blue Mountain is the smoothest coffee I have ever drunk.

  54. 54.

    Ruckus

    @Steve in the ATL:
    Also, you are correct.
    I know a lot of people who speak more than 3 languages. Almost all of them are not from the US. I do know a few native Americans who speak 2 languages but being in CA they speak Spanglish. But to know an American who was in his 70s in the early 60s, who spoke 5 languages fluently? Yeah, still amazing today. Actually to live in the US and know someone who speaks English fluently is almost amazing. I met a girl in Copenhagen in 1972 who spoke perfect Oxford English. When I asked her if she was from England she was startled and asked me why I said that. Told her that her accent was perfect Oxford and she laughed, her English teacher was from Oxford and all the kids in his class spoke that way. She didn’t understand how an American would know what an Oxford accent even was. She was born and raised in Copenhagen

  55. 55.

    Kathleen

    @Emma: I love all of the Coles! John’s mom sounds like she’s so cool. And of course his Dad! I wonder if they would adopt me, actually.

  56. 56.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Just had to stop in and say I am envious of the relationship you have with your parents Cole.

  57. 57.

    PIGL

    It’s just wonderful to see how your life has turned around but only a few years.

    Sometimes, good people get what they deserve … or even the teensiest bit more.

  60. 60.

    Ruckus

    @trollhattan:
    It’s a trade off. You lose some good stuff but you also lose some bad stuff. The guys at work ask me if it’s safe to go in the bathroom after me and I can honestly tell them that my shit doesn’t stink. It most amazed me but last year I got in the elevator in my building and a woman had on about 5 gallons of horrible perfume. I couldn’t actually smell it but the effect on my sinus about knocked me out. It was like someone jammed a broom handle up my nose. At least now I don’t think she smelled like a superfund site. As toxic but not stinky.
    You can look for the bad in life. I don’t understand that, the bad finds you, like it or not. Cancer, disease, handicaps, normal wear and tear, politics……….
    Why not at least try to find the good side of whatever your life gives you? I know a kid in his 20s who was born with misshapen legs/feet. He’s had numerous operations and been under medical care his entire life. He’s suffered more than a lot of people ever do but he looks for the good, the possible, he enjoys life. Every one I’ve known who does that likes living and I’ve known a few.

  63. 63.

    Mary G

    @jeffreyw: Love the pets and the adjacent flower bed with the salvia in the ground and the succulents in the pots. Do you have to take them indoors during the winter?

    Also, thank you Cole for letting us peek into such a wonderful occasion. Your dad’s cake is beautiful. He is a man of many accomplishments, it seems.

  65. 65.

    NotMax

    Quiche. West Virginia.

    Does not compute.

    Unless it’s possum quiche.

    :)

    /hoary stereotype

  66. 66.

    jeffreyw

    @Mary G:

    Love the pets and the adjacent flower bed with the salvia in the ground and the succulents in the pots. Do you have to take them indoors during the winter?

    Mrs J says thanks! She will try to save a few but she says she hasn’t had very good luck with that, and lacking room enough she mostly just starts from scratch.

  67. 67.

    NotMax

    Glass-fronted cabinets. Check.
    Valences. Check.
    Tiled backsplash. Check.
    Hanging plant over sink. Check.
    Ceiling fan. Check.

    The apple truly doesn’t fall far from the tree.

    ;)

  68. 68.

    mattH

    As pretty as it was, it tasted even better! My dad is a man of many talents.

    That’s always the hardest. 90% of the time cakes are either pretty or they taste good, so very seldom both. Props to your dad.

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