August continues.......

here in Judiland.......


Things are buzzing away here in my little suburban hamlet.
In addition to  fighting off a totally crazed blog stalker.....a very rude someone with a severe case of potty mouth.....the past few days have been spent nursing Toni back from her not-so-fun oral surgery.
Thankfully---just in time for the arrival of our out-of-town family last night and my return to work today--she turned the corner.  The bleeding has subsided and the pain has reduced itself to discomfort.  So, she's off the pain meds that were making her loopy and unable to navigate on her own.   Plus, she is finally able to take in some food and keep it in.   Always a good thing.  
Although I always think I'll get lots of stuff done when I'm sequestered at home, things don't always work out quite the way I plan.    In addition to not getting much sleep, playing nurse maid is quite time consuming.  Sure, I got a few things done here and there but I got nowhere near done what I had thought I would.   What that means is that yesterday was a maddening day of playing catch up and getting things ready for our NJ family's arrival.  By pulling a few strings and the kindness of a friend with a big truck, we were able to clear out our dining room of the old furniture and  pick up the new set yesterday afternoon and get things set up for our big family dinner tonight.  What that also meant was that I had to scale back my plans to do a major cleaning of the dining room before the furniture arrived.  I got up at the crack of dawn yesterday and spent a few hours doing the floors and the china closet and then  I decided that it was clean enough....

How things look right now.....I got things set up for our dinner late, late, late last night after hours 

of food prep!

Thankfully, my son the Doctor is home so he will be keeping an eye on his sister's condition and  running errands for me today.  I am leaving him with a list of things that need to be picked up and tasks that need to be completed before I get home and jump feet first into getting dinner on the table before all of our guests arrive.   I am so grateful that our new table can seat 12 comfortably and about 15 if they squish together real tight.  It will make family gatherings so much nicer. 
Although I was extremely excited about such a big table, I failed to think about the fact that I did not have a table cloth to fit it!  All of my table cloths were 120 inches---not nearly long enough!   Of course, I didn't realize it until very late yesterday afternoon--when stores were ready to shut their doors.  So, I frantically raced out in search of a 140 inch one!  Trust me....they are not easy to find. 
Finally....in the nick of time....before Bed, Bath and Beyond locked their doors.....I slid through and found one that would work!  Usually, I think of little decorating details like table cloths.  But, living on little to no sleep for the past 5 days did a job on me.....

So, what am I putting on my new dining room table tonight?

Assorted Italian cheeses
Balsamic Roasted asparagus, bella mushrooms, zucchini and banana peppers
Caesar Salad
Caprese Salad
A big, big antipasti platter
Raw veggie platter (green and purple endive, celery, red peppers and yellow peppers) with this  yummy dip!
 Shrimp Fra Diavolo
and.....lots of VINO!  

Food. Food. Food.......