1062 Preparing for guests

Tomorrow I'm having guests for brunch/lunch. Some women are fastidious housekeepers, some are gourmet cooks and some are fabulous hostesses. I'm none of those, but for a few hours I can fake an average of the three. Maybe I can't be a 10, but I can be a darn good 5. Today I am cleaning and setting the table; yesterday I prepared most of the food. This will allow me to be a good hostess tomorrow and only pay attention to my guests instead of freaking out over water spots on the knife blades or a missing salad plate that's in the dishwasher.

Today I'm dusting everything at eye level, for anyone 5'2" to 5'8". The men don't care, so I'm only measuring the women. I'm really going after the cat hair too. You never know when a guest might have allergies and sneeze all over the end table you just cleaned. Also, I vacuumed the cold air returns. That's something you don't usually look at in your own house, but if you have a pet, your returns probably look like a piece of gray felt. Also, your HVAC will work a lot better.

I'm also really cleaning the bathrooms. Again, only women notice, but I hate going in to freshen up at a dinner party and find dust on the toilet and cobwebs on the mirror. Just makes me a tad suspicious about the food prep area, eh? Do you have Cross and Bible interior doors? Maybe you didn't know they were called that, but I'm married to an architect, and boy are they dust catchers--the doors not the husband. And computer equipment. Yikes. My desk is next to the only downstairs "powder room." Nothing attracks cat hair and dirt more than technology.

One of my guests is a collector--of antiques, seasonal ceramic things, and just about anything historical having to do with cooking. So I gave a swipe across my great-grandmother's "wachamacallit" (I think it was used to punch down rising bread dough) and my grandmother's ceramic butter churn that looks like a small cement mixer. People do like to touch, and I'd be embarrassed if they got dirty fingers (these things are dusted only if company is coming). One guest is a piano teacher, but I gave my piano to my daughter in 1996, so now she is dusting that.

That's enough blogging for now. I have to go poke the artificial day lilies around the patio wall and make a pecan pie. My husband hates them, but they are my favorite, so I only make one when I have guests around to eat at least 60% of it. The other pie is apple--for that, I am unmatched, a complete 10.