"Just Brush the Paint Dust Off Your Pizza and Dig In!"

Ed invited the neighbors and their son, his wife, and their daughter over for dinner tonight. This is what our kitchen looked like today. I was a little dismayed when he informed me we were having company, thinking that with our house in complete disarray it was premature, but we had a wonderful evening. Ed made several pizzas, including his signature “classic” pizza, with basil, garlic, and tomatoes, and also his crowd pleasing chicory and red onion salad, and our guests seemed to enjoy the meal very much. They are really nice people, who did an excellent job of ignoring the state of our house. Susan even chopped the tomatoes for the pizza, since we were, as usual, not ready with dinner at the time we had optimistically thought we would be. The neighbors’ son and daughter-in-law got a puppy recently, after their daughter met Bo here and decided that she liked dogs after all, and the puppy joined us as well. The puppy, a little black schnauzer, has been named Bo as well, and our Bo found him utterly fascinating, if a little alarming. It was cute to watch our great hairy dog sniffing cautiously at that tiny little puppy, even if it did destroy any hope Bo might have had of having a reputation as a brave guard dog. We sat out on the porch, chatting, ‘til late, and there were even a few fireflies. I couldn’t have asked for a nicer evening – good old Ed!

*The light circles all over the kitchen picture are just camera weirdness -- it isn't really snowing in the kitchen.