So there we were last night, watching TV. I had the notebook out and was writing an e-mail to Jaki and Robert and was then going to post a blog. It was around 7 when Linda said someone was knocking on the door.
(The cleverest among you are probably saying to yourselves. Oh, I see that he still hasn't got a doorbell. But that's another topic for another time.)
Anyhow, I open the door and to my surprise there is our friend, Bob. "What are you doing here?" I asked. "Well, you invited me to dinner, didn't you?" he said.
Well, to be strictly accurate we had invited him for dinner, but it was for the next night. But being a good host is all about making your friends feel welcome and happy to be with you. A bad host would have told Bob he had showed up on the wrong night.
"That was for tomorrow," I told him.
"No," he argued, "it was for tonight."
The good host in me took over. "Doesn't matter," I said. "Come on in and have dinner with us." Sat him down, got him a drink, and let the bad host take over again. My laptop was still on and I called up our e-mails. "Nope, Bob," I said, "definitely tomorrow night. But don't worry 'cuz we are ready to have a good time tonight." Or something to that effect.
Basically I called up the e-mails because I was concerned that maybe I really am losing it, that I am not quite remembering things that I should. I have to tell you I was happy to find out it was my friend who was like that, not me.
The best thing about it all is that it really and truly didn't matter that Bob had made a mistake on the date. Linda has not quite mastered the art of cooking for two. On most nights an entire football team could show up unexpectedly and there would be enough food.
So last night she had two pork loins in the oven when Bob came knocking. She threw in a couple more potatoes, and dinner for three was in the bag.
It also gave me a chance to raid the wine fridges and grab some old bottles. That's something I only do when we have guests. The rest of the time I proudly support my retirement during the global economic crisis by drinking $4.95 bottles that don't even bother putting a vintage year on the label. They actually start tasting good after the first two.
And at the end of the meal, I was able to pull out enough bits of cheese from the little sliding drawer in the fridge that we had a proper cheese plate. I even found some crackers to go with the cheese.
As I said, it really didn't matter to us if Bob came over Monday or Tuesday. And we had a great evening, chatting away until we actually made it to the day Bob was supposed to be here. So in a sense, we were both right.
But because he showed up unexpectedly, we were able to sit back today basking in the glory of actually being able to put on a proper dinner party with no notice and no preparation. Mind you, the next person to knock unexpectedly is just as likely to share a pizza that we have to order, but there's still going to be some nice wines.
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