Loose Ends
There's nothing like having company!
Susan Nienow

Having company makes me clean, organize and plan - three things I would never do without a deadline and a compelling reason. Most of the time things go as planned, but occasionally there is a glitch. My glitches are significant enough to wonder, "What was I thinking?"

Beds made - check. Every surface dusted - check. Fresh towels out - check. We were ready for a week of houseguests. They were coming in two batches with the switch made on Friday so I had the middle of the day to wash the linens. The first ones came and went without incident - meaning, no disasters like a flat tire on the way to Monticello or power outages at the house.

Then the second set came. Dinner was successful, and everyone was sitting at the table laughing and talking while I worked on the dishes. My other half said my scream, "Oh *!#*!" didn't come close to covering the problem.

I always learn something I didn't know before when we entertain. Sometimes it's how to manage dinner for seven when I expected five. It could be as simple as checking the microwave to make sure I didn't forget the vegetables. Sometimes it's just that when I make a special dessert, make two.

Occasionally it's a tip that could have changed the course of the evening, like, "When the garbage disposal sounds funny, turn it off - and leave it off." Do you know what happens when you dump the leftover spaghetti noodles - lots of them (no one ever cooks too few) - down the garbage disposal?

It grinds it up into little one-quarter inch pieces. Then when the noodles get stuck in the bends of the pipe and one of the pipes breaks, water and tiny noodles spew all over the inside of the cabinet, out of every crevasse including over the top of the cabinet doors out onto the kitchen floor.

I have never put stringy stuff like artichoke leaves down the disposal. A few spoons, but they don't cause clogs. No banana peels or steak bones. But wet noodles? There's no warning on the box.

I am still finding those little pieces - only now they are dry and stuck to whatever they landed on. Pasta is really another name for glue. I probably need to get down on my hands and knees with a flashlight and a toothpick to get the last of them. But, if I can't see anything when I am standing up, it doesn't exist. In other words, I'll deal with it later.

My other half hated plumbing before I stopped up the drain, and I doubt if that crowd will ask for spaghetti at our house again. But, the experience didn't stop me from asking the neighbors over - and then thinking that I asked them for Saturday instead of Friday. My other half loves to do the cooking, but he's not really crazy about surprise dinners when the surprise is on him.