There is a bit of irony when you have friends over for dinner.  I spent last night vacuuming, Jeremy mopped.  I dusted the whole house and cleaned our bathroom today.  I'm making sure we have clean rooms and I even pulled out a few fall and Halloween decorations.  I am making a nice presentation for our friends.  The irony?  our friends don't care if we have dust bunnies, or cluttered floors or non-perfectly fluffed pillows.  That's the beauty of friendship, true and unabashed friendship.  So what that the squash risotto is made by Trader Joe's or that we are having boxed mix brownies for dessert?  the point is the fellowship, the friendship, we could be eating ramen noodles and it could be a dinner party that goes down in the history books. I have always loved company but as I get older, I really like company.  I really like adult friendships.  I really like post dinner dance parties, kids running around, empty wine bottles, discarded board games and burned out candles.  It's fun.  I think that we shall try to have  friends over at least once a month, even if it's only to show off our sparkling clean house and non-culinary skills!