Despite the Universe's Best Attempts

I had a good birthday and the party was swell.  We woke yesterday to discover that there was a power outage in our neighborhood.  Since two major chores (bake the ham! vacuum the house) were dependent on electricity (it's a gas oven, but it has electronic controls) this caused a brief flutter of panic, and some investigation to discover whether it would be possible to cook the ham in the gas grill (it is, but it would take even longer). Then, just after 11, the power was restored.  The ham was baked, the floors were clean, and at 2pm on the dot people began to arrive.

By about eight, everyone was gone, and we were beginning to put leftovers away--at which point Julie and her beau and a friend showed up and happily took the leftovers away with them.  There are still dishes to be dealt with, and I'm not sure my feet will ever be the same, but it was a good party. And now it's over.

The chiefest victim (in her own mind, anyway) is poor Emily, who couldn't decide whether she needed to bark at everyone, or cruise for snacky things in the garbage cans.  Today she is sleeping the sleep of the Totally Exhausted Dog. Looks kind of good, actually.