For once, everything is ready before people arrive. I think that's a first. Naturally, my neighbor across the street is having a partay, too. They did it last year and I really REALLY don't like these people - they used to do their partay on the 23rd - always, for years, ever since I moved here. And they only have people over with those humungous SUV things and they take up ALL the room, and this year, unlike last year, they started their partay an hour earlier than mine. I must say, they suck in just about every way, whether it's leaving a Fiat parked in the same spot for twelve weeks (until I called the traffic department - they ticketed the car and would have towed it and I think the oafs understood that and moved it), or their kinfolk who park in front of my house with some decrepit old trailer from the 60s, or just lording it over the nabe. Bah, humbug! Guests in ten minutes and I'm ready to EAT!
