Bills, Spills, and Chills

The bad news is that I had to pay a lot of money for medical tests for Honey this week. The good news is Honey's tests all came back fine.

I think the money is worth the peace of mind; however, when we are pushing about $800 for diagnostics, it hurts in the wallet. Still, I'm so glad she's okay for now! (She did fall down the stairs this afternoon, and we were worried until she let us know she wasn't in pain, but she was embarrassed.) Honey is a little too fat and it's not good for her joints. The problem is that because I am with her all the time, I don't see the change.

Since it's late June, we decide to have some friends over for dinner last night and do it out in the backyard. I figured we'd have nice weather and so I dragged out tablecloths, napkins, china, silver, and wine glasses for the 8 of us. Alex threw some pork ribs on the BBQ, I made potato salad, strawberry and spinach salad, and curried corn on the cob. Along with some really wonderful crusty french bread and some lovely truffled white cheese, (Nicky where were you?), and a lemon tart for dessert, it was a really nice meal.

Ribs are not elegant food, but neither is corn on the cob. It's fun watching people eat these things! Women are inclined to try and do it delicately. Men just go for it! Because of the ribs, I did not use white napkins. Much too hard to get the stains out. I know you could do paper, and paper plates for that matter, but does anybody really like eating off of paper plates and using paper napkins? I don't.

Of course, if it had not cooled to the low 50's by 5 PM it would have been a little more comfortable. I gave the ladies warm wraps to keep them from shaking too hard from the cold. Ah! Northern Cali! Summer! Never mind, open another bottle of wine. And if it gets colder, we'll pull out the whiskey too!

After dinner, we came in so the boys could play a little poker while the girls sat in the kitchen and gossiped while I cleaned up. It was a fun little evening, particularly on a Tuesday.

Harry and Honey love it when we have outdoor events! They can always find the "weak sister" in the crowd and score some treats!