I don’t “entertain” all that often. Mostly that means that elsaf and judiang come to visit and we stay at mom & dad’s cottage at Lake Loramie. But tonight, I had 12 guests over! And none of them were from the Internets! (How long will it be before I get tired of calling it that, I wonder?)

Actually, the guests included my first grade, second grade, geometry, and industrial arts teachers, my sister’s first grade and art teachers, and the third principal that I worked for. Most of these folks are or have been colleagues of mine at Newton. They’re wonderful folks and next summer we’re heading off to Italy together. So we’ve been meeting once a month or so to iron out details. I volunteered to host the November meeting. So if you wondered why I was cleaning last night, *that’s* why. 🙂

The meeting was a success. Folks brought some munchies (pasta, tomatoes w/ mozarella, veggies, brownies, pumpkin bread) and I provided Bailey’s Irish Cream ice cream and bittersweet chocolate ice cream. (Both were a hit.) I warned folks that I didn’t have a huge selection of booze, so most folks brought their own. (I even made ice! But turns out I didn’t need a lot of it. I drink water straight from the tap, in case you wondered.)

The gathering lasted from 7pm until nearly 10:30pm. I got to show off my house to folks. My first grade teacher was pleased to see my reading room. As Amy’s first grade teacher told her “Isn’t it nice to know that the people you teach to read end up still reading years later?” They also witnessed my obsession with Sylvester McCoy. (The huge binders full of photos is a bit of a give-away, as are the numerous photos on the den walls.) I was impressed that my second grade teacher figured out that he was from Doctor Who. 🙂

So anyhoo, the place is a mess again, but it’s a happy mess. I’ll clean it up tomorrow. (And boy is my recycle bin gonna be fun with all of those bottles of booze!)