The Hostess with the Mostess

Yes, that's me.  I'm going to skip right over a bevy of activity to jump right to what an incredible hostess I am and how Jimmy and Laura can't wait to come back for  another visit.

First, a few days before they arrived, the air conditioning went out.  While we're nowhere near the temperatures of Las Vegas, it was still getting up to about 90 in the day, so that was a bummer, to say the least.  While we managed to get it fixed (new compressor and some other thingy), the morning that Jimmy and Laura arrived, we had a repairman out and he discovered that the computer board that opens some other baffle-thingies was out and we couldn't pump any more cool air into the living room area. You know, the one with all the west-facing windows.   Now that we have that background.....

Jimmy and Laura arrive on a late Thursday afternoon.  The house is clean (albeit a tad warm), and I've been marinating some lovely carne asada from the Smokehouse for two days.   I grill it, get all the fixings going and the four of us sit down to eat.   About mid-way through dinner, my charming husband says, "You know, there's a restaurant in town that makes a GREAT carne asada."

Silence.  Then lots of laughs, because apparently mine wasn't that GREAT.  Sheeesh.

The next morning, I get up early to get the paper.  I take Nigel with me, which means I leave the garage door shut until we're both in the car, then I open the garage door and pull out.

And back right into Laura's Cadillac.

My car, post-collision

Laura's car, post-collision

That is a sick and queasy feeling, folks.  I promptly confess and offer to pay for the damage to be repaired.  We're not getting off to a very good start, I fear.

The next morning, Ted gets up first, but promptly returns to the bedroom to tell me the plumber is here to fix a leak we've had for weeks, and has turned off all the water to the house.  While we have guests.

This is our friend and plumber, Ed, standing in hole and fixing a pipe.

 Since I'm betting our guests might like some water to wash with, I get up and head out to pick up some bottles of water for each bathroom and the kitchen.  Who knows when the water will be back on?  Well, fortunately it was back on before Laura got up but I appreciated the bottled water anyway.

Next, we had tickets for Alison Krause and Union Station in Bend at the Schwab Amphitheater.  Poor Laura didn't want to sit outside in the breeze, since from the moment of  her arrival in Oregon she had been sneezing hard enough to crack a rib, so Ted, Jimmy and I went.

While Ted went to get some beer, Jimmy and I agreed that our pet peeve about concerts is when they start late, like an hour or more.  Since there was no advertised opening act for this show, we were looking forward to seeing Ms. Krause right at 6:30.  Alas, it was not to be.  Some trio appeared on stage, performed a few songs, then left.  Our main event didn't start until, you guessed it, 7:30.

They were quite good, however, and I enjoyed it very much.  Even though it got a little cold when the sun went down, and Ted once again had to be labeled as over 21.

Despite all this craziness, Jimmy and Laura swear they had a good time.  I know we enjoyed their company and, who knows?  Maybe all systems will be operational by the time they visit us again!