Par-tay!

We moved in here about 5 years ago. I wanted to have a house warming, but with one thing or another we haven't. Mostly because I wanted to wait until it looked good enough to let people in the door. To a guy, that means someplace to put down your beer. To a woman, that means things that match and are clean. At the same time.

The other revelation vis-a-vis party-ability has been that if you buy a fixer-upper, you seem to spend all your potential party money on fixer-uppering. Who knew.

In the mean time: Laughing Boy has had two sushi-making parties; our backyard neighbor has asked us last minute to have a dinner party for his girlfriend's return with a whopping forty five minutes notice; one of Laughing Boy's coworkers has hosted a party at our house; and LB's Mom has held a holiday party for their whole family here at the House of Panda. And to all of these requests, Laughing Boy has said "Yes." Which brings us to tonight, when LB's having another sushi party.

In the middle of planning this last minute shindig, cleaning the house, finally buying our first set of all matching non-chipped dishes and generally sprucing up the place, I suggested we have a little late brunch here in a couple of weeks. For the good friends of ours who can't make this weekend's festivities. I mean, why waste the clean. LB begged off. We have so little free time, we're having a party now. No need to have another one so soon.

I'm not the one to look a sushi horse in the mouth. But there's something wrong with this picture.

Let's see, I'm sure someone hasn't had a party at our house... Someone who lives here, even. Let me think... Oh yeah. That would be me.

So, with my usual subtlety and tact, I pointed out the gross disparity in the hosting department. And then, we practiced.

"LB. You know the lady who hit my beloved car last week and pretended she couldn't see the dent she made in my car door, and then when that didn't go over so well, pretended she couldn't speak English all of a sudden? Let's say she calls up and asks if she can have a party here at our house, you say... what?"

"No. It's Panda's turn to have a party."

"And when I say, 'Hey, honey. Why don't we have a little party here next week...' You say...?"

"Yes, sweetypoops. That would be great. We can have a party whenever you want."

Good boy.