Under the Big Top

Thursday night I hosted book club under my Big Top (aka my living room). Seventeen people crowded in to see the show, er, discuss the book "Water For Elephants" by Sara Gruen. We dined on circus foods including hot dogs, chips, tater tots, fried chicken, fruit, caramel apples, peanuts and those sugary circus peanut candies. Mmmm. Your mouth is watering, isn't it? We were also treated to some Lemony Wickets (gin-laced lemonade drinks) provided by Carrie and Robin. Pictured here are some of the crowd from bottom right -- Jaime's head, Molly, Kasey (a new member), Cory, Suzanne, Tara and Kathryn:


Here is Denise making a point. I can't remember what the point was after making her do this over again so I could take the picture. Thank you for posing beautifully for this! But she said it with conviction. A lot of conviction.

One of the highlights of the night was seeing Robin walk through the door with a turkey carcass (it was made out of fabric) on her head. Her birthday is around Thanksgiving, so that's why the fascination with the bird. It all made sense when she explained it. And no one thought twice about why she might be wearing turkey attire. We're just that accepting. Also pictured here are Lori L., Amy, Kerry's foot, Carrie's foot, Lori B.'s foot and Jaime's arm. Not pictured besides me: Peggy, Diane and Bonnie. Sorry ladies!

The time spent discussing the book had to be close to a record. It seems like we discussed for almost an hour and that's pretty darn good for us.

On a sad note, we had no Book Club After Dark this time. It must have been because Brenda wasn't there to entertain us.

It wouldn't have been a circus theme without some cotton candy, and Bonnie showed up with this bag, which we passed around:

There's still a little bit left in the bag, which is still in my kitchen. I checked the nutritional contents. Yes, it's pure sugar (and air) but it is only 330 calories for the whole bag. That surprised me for some reason. Overall the book was a hit among everyone who'd read it. And most of us had. It was a good time.