Playing Host

My friend Karen came into town for a short trip this weekend. She's very into race walking, and was involved in a race down in Monterey on Sunday morning. She drove up afterwards and spent Sunday evening at my house.

If you're even fortunate (?) enough to stay at my house, here's the sort of stuff you can expect:

1. Karen's allergic to cats, grass, trees, sunlight, oxygen, etc. Mainly animals, though. I generally try to vacuum the house, and sweep the guest room and remove all the cat stuff from the room before she arrives. We've been so busy I didn't have a chance to vacuum, but I did do everything else. I also try to keep the guest bed (futon) free of too much cat hair by laying blankets over it, and of course I have sheets, pillows and blankets which are cat-free.
2. Good food is in abundance around here. It seems like our usual outing with Karen these days when she visits is Frankie Johnny & Luigi Too! - we even went there when her mother was in town visiting her (when she lived here for a year). So that's where we went last night.
3. We'll take you out to see the sights. Last night this meant a trip to the two elaborate Hallowe'en displays in the city. Devious Concoctions is an elaborate animatronic display (which we wonder whether it drives the neighbors nuts). There's another display which is not animated, but which features lots of great puns on a variety of tombstones. Although we appreciated the workmanship of the DC Cemetery, I think we enjoyed the latter display more.
4. My aforementioned front room is where my humor, non-fiction, and baseball books are stored, so Karen usually avails herself of the comic strip collections when she visits.
5. Although Debbi typically uses the guest bathroom, it's farmed out to guests when they're here.
6. You're welcome to use my DSL via my wireless network if you can guess the password.
7. All the cat petting you can handle. Blackjack even sat next to Karen for part of Sunday evening while she was watching TV!
8. Help yourself to fresh-brewed coffee in the morning. Once, you know, I brew it.

Karen headed out when I left for work. She wanted to go up to Berkeley and spend the day puttering around up there before catching her flight out in the afternoon. I think she appreciates the downtime and relaxation she gets when she visits. Even if we're driving around, we're usually going off to do something fun.

Sunday Debbi and I set up for Trick-or-Treaters. We didn't get many, unfortunately. My house is on the wrong side of a major street to get a lot of candy-seekers, especially of the younger set. So we get maybe a dozen kids over the course of the night, and then gorge ourselves on our own candy. It's kind of a bummer, but there are worse things.

Debbi loves doing big holiday displays, so I foresee a big Hallowe'en display in our future. Maybe not as big as the two mentioned above, but at least with more lights than we have now. And maybe some ghosts.