Rehearsal dinner was at the Copper Pig, regarded as the second
best barbecue in central New York next to Dinosaur (but recently
closed forever). We had half the restaurant, and the Irish
relatives filled up the space with noise and presence as if we
had the whole place. Bunches of booze, need I say more. I was
pretty moderate, with just a couple Gansetts before a bottle of
Southern Tier smoked whiskey behind the bar caught my eye, so I
had a glass of that. It had a pretty strong raw alcoholic
presence and tasted rather like Everclear with a bit of Wright's
and a touch of vanilla extract. Others detect chocolate and other profundities. I don't. Scotland does not yet have anything to
fear. After this I went back to cheap beer. Though the groom's
parents were paying, I didn't see the need to inflict unnecessary
expense on them. And cheap beer goes well with barbecue.

Luckily I returned to my spot at table in time to see a huge
tray of ribs, brisket, and pulled pork brought in, When it was
my turn, I modestly took one rib and a couple pieces of the fatty
rejects of the other two. The rib was quite good, though the meat
had been pretreated so a bit mushy (I suspect pressure cooking)
and then cooked over too high heat to make up for that. The fatty
bits of the meats were good as well, but the leaner parts not so
much. Nobody cooks brisket long enough except in Texas.

There were giant mounds of collards, good also as having been
cooked with smoked meat trimmings, and potatoes, about which I
cannot report.

We left more food than we ate. It was all packed up for someone.

--
The wedding itself was relatively brief for a Catholic Mass.
By way of coincidence, St. Mary's was at one time the home of
my friend Rosemary's brother, and some of the parishioners
actually remembered him and fondly at that (what were they to
say when confronted by a guy who says I'm a friend of Father
Jim, you remember when he was here?).

We were then trucked to the reception at a corporate retreat
near Skaneateles called Welch Allyn - quite upscale and elegant
in the hunting lodgy sort of way, spacious and with room for
I'd guess 500, and with a competent staff. It is owned by a
medical equipment company by that name, and why it's there or
why the wedding was there I've no idea.

Being a sort of interloper I was seated at a table of the groom's
cousins and aunts; Cindy to my right was quite attractive and
lively, and we had a pleasant chat and maybe a modest little
flirtation. No more, I'm certain.

My dinner was filet with asparagus and some kind of potato
with blue cheese that I didn't eat. The filet was medium plus
but tender enough. Cindy's, I noticed, was quite rare. Oh, well,
you win some and lose some.

I alternated between the poured red wine, which was sort of okay
and the more interesting Salt City IPA from Rochester, which was
very evergreen and citrus hoppy, quite bitter, mouth-coating,
with a long finish. Better to drink by itself than with the meat,
which it completely overpowered, hence the alternation,

After dark, we were invited out on the back deck for fireworks
over the lake. Pretty impressive in an ostentatious way that I
wouldn't have expected from these academic types.

After a number of toasts with not overwhelmingly good bubbly
and a bunch of dancing (in which I participated minimally) I
found a ride to my new quarters at the Days Inn, where they
gave me a corner room that smelled slightly mildewy, but at
that point who was to care.

--
Some of the other guests were also overflowed here, so I caught
a ride to brunch back at the Garden Inn, which was your standard
hotel buffet but that impressed the outlanders (all you can eat!
Bacon AND sausage!).

On the cold light of day, Cindy didn't seem all that interested
in talking to me (making me wonder what did I do or not do the
night before), so I sat with some of the bride's relatives. who
were interesting enough and friendly enough.

For parting favors, there were big containers of nuts, dried fruit,
crunchy things (pretzels, etc.), and M&Ms - make your own trail mix
in fact if not in name. I took a bunch of blue M&Ms and a few
Snapdragon apples, a variety which the bride's father had been
instrumental in the development of; some bushels of these were a
wedding gift from the Cornell Orchards. The apples are fragrant,
very crisp, and very sweet - sort of the way I remember Delicious
having been when I was a kid. What did the Red Queen say in Through
the Looking Glass?

Being full and tired, after lengthy goodbyes we made a nonstop
trip back to the house.

--
Miscellaneous other stuff

I was walking the backyard at the house and found a monster hen of
the woods and harvested it, sauteing it with olive oil and garlic
and serving it over spaghetti. It was wonderful, as it could hardly
have been otherwise. Later Bob admitted that he hadn't known what it
was and had run over another one a few days before with the lawnmower.

--

Deb is a docent at the Worcester Art Museum, so that is an excuse to
have lunch at the Sole. I got risotto with Nantucket bay scallops -
the risotto was creamy and tender but shot full of Parmesan, which is
a dubious idea. The scallops were decent for 21st century shellfish
but nowhere near the ones I bought from the guy at Nantucket Bay a
bunch of years ago before my concert there. Rodney Strong Chardonnay,
an old standby, was its usual self, pretty full bodied and oaky - the
depth of flavor stood up to the cheese in the risotto, but the wood
amplified itself and brought out a bitterness that wasn't optimal.
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