Gratuitous Domestic Posting (TM) - Labor Day Division

No enormous plans for the long weekend. However, we are having some folks over Monday for a cookout, which means that tomorrow I have to give the yard what we call the Full Monty treatment. (This means mowing and trimming everything, including the front ditch and the little meadow behind the back fence. It usually takes at least three hours to do a thorough job.)

The cookout is one of those obligatory return engagements. We're doing it for the parents of one of the girls' little school friends who had us all over earlier this summer. At first I was rather concerned that these might be the only people coming. It's not that I actively dislike them. They're nice enough, I suppose, but I really don't have anything in common with them. In such situations, I tend to get rather tight-lipped. Especially here, where I'm supposed to be the host after all, this really isn't fair. (The Butcher's Wife, who is very much more outgoing than I am and also has the gift of all-purpose social gab, tells me that I tend to intimidate people with my coldness. I don't really believe this. I think I just bore them instead. Either way, tho, it's not very enjoyable for them.)

Much to my relief, I found that two other families are coming as well. They're also school friends, but they have much more in common with us in terms of tastes and interests. (Furthermore, as one of them is a big muckety-muck with The Carlyle Group and another works for Cheney, I can get all the inside dope on what's cooking at Vast Right Wing Conspiracy High Command.) Given this level of social dilution, as it were, I ought to be able to hold my own and play the game.

In the meantime, if I don't yip at you before then, I hope all of our readers out there have a very nice, long, relaxing holiday.