Well, we survived that horrible, awful afternoon, and eventually got the stupid tarp on the house without killing ourselves in the process. By the time all was said and done, we were soaked through and shaking with cold, numb to the awfulness that just occurred. Hobbling like the walking dead back to our camper, we raided our messy closets for clean-ish clothes.

Then, I grabbed the Coconut Tres Leches cake with Lime Whipped Cream I'd baked the day before, and we headed over to Charlie and Becky's house for a Cinco de Cuatro party with the gang. When we arrived looking like drowned rat zombies, we received a warm, if piteous, welcome from our friends ("Oh you poor kids!" Becky said), and were plied with margaritas (Jeremy's recipe, which he'd been perfecting since the early afternoon) before being urged to head upstairs for long, hot showers. Thank god for good neighbors.

Once clean and warmed and much more human, we gorged ourselves on Becky's amazing fajitas, drank more of Jeremy's delicious margaritas, and finished the meal off with my coconut tres leches cake. After we could handle no more, we all collapsed on the couch to watch the first two episodes of Arrested Development.

The party was amazing, life-affirming, and just plain fun, standing in such stark contrast to our afternoon. The end to our day was yet another example of how polar our lives can be sometimes. It was easily worst afternoon I can remember, and thanks to our good friends, it was one of the best evenings in recent memory.