Who's coming to dinner?

My in-laws have skipped town for Thanksgiving, which means I don't need to host the annual family summit this year, and also that I don't have to consume any Xanax.  This is good.

My mom wants to have Thanksgiving at the family homestead.  The menu is, of course, extensive.  More food than any of us needs to see on the table. 

I'm in charge of a vegetable and desserts.  Today I was informed that I must make my vegetable green or orange so that the meal would be colorful.  I was hoping to make a brussels sprouts dish because I wanted to be all local and in-season but I was also informed that nobody likes brussels sprouts.  Then mom said "We like carrots and broccoli and cauliflower..."  Cauliflower is not colorful, MOM.

I'm rather confident that nobody will be able to turn down my brussels sprouts.  The secret will be prosciutto, which is basically how I make any vegetable taste good.

My mom called today to ask to borrow a few serving items for the dinner, and told me she wanted fall-color napkins and did I have any?  Sure, I have some yellowish damask cloth napkins. 

Mom:  Great, I'll need 6 napkins.

Me:  Six?

Mom:  I invited Henry.

Me:  Who's Henry?

Mom:  He's your brother's friend. ₁

Me:  Oh.  Is he...able to have regular conversation or is he a weirdo?

Mom:  He's fine.  Just be nice.

Me:  Me??!!?  

Mom:  Henry lives with your brother.

Me: What?  Is that a recent thing?

Mom:  It's been several months, I thought you knew. It's fine, that's all we need to say about it.

Me:  Really?  OK.  As long as he's not a psycho druggie mooch like the last roommate.  Does he work?

Mom:  Yes, he runs a business and he's about 50 years old. 

I hung up the phone and said to D., my brother has a friend.  Do you think he's a friend or a "friend"?  

This should be interesting.

₁   Last time I found out my brother had a friend I discovered that the friend was mooching rent off of the family and causing my sick misguided brother to be sicker and I hauled off and vaporized the bugger.  So you can understand my alarm about hearing of another roommate.

I'm testing out the new Typepad composer editor stuff and I'm not quite feelin' it yet so this post feels weird. Does it look weird?  It feels weird.

 

Comments

[Tg]

A 50 year old "friend"? Hmmm

Your entry looks great!.

[D]

Henry? Of course, that was Grampa's name, and he's a 50 year old 'friend'? xo, D

[Kristin]

Bring red wine - it's colorful and you may need coppius amounts of it.