The Duck's Sort of Official Party

Ducknik's Sort of Official Birthday Party was last night at World Headquarters. Joe and Pat, Neil and Clyde and Ron and Kathy came too.

Neil and Clyde live in Mill Valley and have been roommates for more than forty years. The family is intertwined in many ways -- Neil and his much-missed sister Annie were Ducknik and Joe's good friends when they were children. Then, after Duck and Joe's mom died and Neil and Annie's dad died, Duck's father married Neil's mom and Neil, Annie, Ducknik, Joe and JJ-aka-PP became family.

Last night, for the first time, Plotnik looked at Neil and could see Ruth, his mom. He thinks it's the eyes.

Ron and Joe were buddies on the same destroyer during the Vietnam War. They've not only maintained their friendship, but Ron and Kathy have just sold their house in Oakland and bought one in Greenville, South Carolina, down the street from Joe and Pat.

It was a fun night: Green curry bbq chicken,, Pantzarosalata (beets, walnuts, garlic), Watermelon/feta/black olive salad,  Mango/avocado salad, Ducknik's hot corn sticks, and Pat's incomparable blueberry cobbler, made with South Carolina blueberries smuggled into California in a certain attorney's suitcase. The cobbler is so good that Pat now has a new name: The Gobbler of Cobbler.

We missed you, JJ-aka-PP, and our four kids too. But look where you all are: 

Atlanta, Brooklyn, Providence, Washington DC and Austin.