Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Mid-Night Terrors, Part 2

It wasn't a pain in my side that woke me at 4 a.m. this morning, it was suddenly realizing that in just a few days we have to be feeding 120 or so people. I've entered my normal panic phase that it's all going to go badly. That there won't be enough food. That I should have brought the leftovers home from Ned and Marta's the other night.

I tried to go back to sleep, but I kept thinking of vats of clam dip and oceans of potato salad and people standing there with empty plates. I finally got up to check the spreadsheet I had of people who had volunteered to bring food. Most of the people I contacted didn't answer. The few who did were generous with their offers to share food, but it won't be enough, of course. Thank goodness Costco is practically in Alice Nan's back yard.

Tom's doing most of the work on the main course and I'm organizing the side dishes. It will go OK. I know it will go OK. But I just need to panic a bit first. I'll feel better once I get down there.

I had put off going to the cake store for the few things I need to decorate the wedding cake. I wanted to get the shower behind us before I started thinking about the wedding itself. So this morning I was going to drive down to get all the stuff I need.

Before I left the house, I checked the web site to double-check on their hours of operation and learned that they are closed on Monday.

But...no problem. There is a big cake store where I used to shop all the time when I was doing cake decorating more often. I didn't want to drive that far, but owell, it's not that far--only to Sacramento.

But...they are closed on Mondays too! Doh!

I did some internet searching and found a place in Santa Barbara that sounds like it has what I wanted to get, so I've bookmarked that and will go there on Wednesday morning. I hope they are open on Wednesdays.

I also started worrying about Jeri's flowers. In a flush of "oh wouldn't that be sweet" a couple of weeks ago, I asked my mother if she would like to make a bouquet for Jeri to carry, since my mother is the flower person. Only at 4 a.m., I realized that she is driving down on Friday, and won't get there till Friday night and the wedding is Saturday around noon. Will there be time to find flowers and make a bouquet? I don't want to put pressure on her. I just thought she might like to do it, but now I'm concerned that it will be too much of a hassle. What to do? What to do?

There was also the gift that Jeri and Phil wanted to give the guests. It would take some searching on Jeri's part and some fiddling on my part and would there be enough time to do it all? Then I remembered that it was something that could be done in Santa Barbara and didn't have to be finished before we leave Davis.

Finally there is the issue of the dogs.

Our next door neighbor is having his fence replaced. We are paying for half of our side of his yard and were upset to learn that the plan was for it to be done while we were in Santa Barbara. We weren't sure what we were going to do, since Ashley will be here, but we didn't want to saddle her with the problem of the dogs and workmen and a missing fence!

Then Walt talked with the workmen and they decided to do the fence on the other side of our neighbors' house first, and do our fence after we get home. But the fence will be completely gone and there will be jackhammers involved, so obviously the dogs need to go somewhere.

No problem. I'd just call our Davis dogsitters, Kathy and Miguel, who took care of them two weeks ago. The dogs love being there, they seem to love having them, and the cost is reasonable.

But Ashley said she heard a rumor that Kathy and Miguel had moved out of Davis. No! They couldn't do that, could they? Kathy had just given me her new cell phone number not two weeks ago. But when I called the number, it had been disconnected, as had their house number.

Well...that was a disappointment, but I could always take the dogs to the kennel where we've had them boarded before. I checked their web site to get the phone number and learned that they are closed because they are moving and won't be open until late 2008.

Swell. Now what? I called our vet, who gave me a recommendation of a place out in the country somewhere. I called and left a message, but so far nobody has called me back. Ashley also says she may know some people. But at the moment, the question about where the dogs are going to go is up in the air.

Something to wake me up at 4 a.m. tomorrow, I guess.

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