Posted by Loulou on Aug 15, 2013 | 2 comments

(She always wins!)

Well, we’re having company.

A couple about whom one can only say several million words of praise and glory and so I’m not saying anything until I meet these two. But boy, have I heard stories: the cook, they travel, they know all the chefs in Italy (see Italy Cooks; one of the couple is an author of many, many great cookbooks), they will probably know all the chefs in France once they travel around here; they own restaurants, GREAT restaurants, but best of all, they have a bocce court in their yard!

When you call them on the phone, the message says, “We’re either cooking or out playing bocce” and isn’t that just the kind of couple you’d love to hang out with?

I hope they like me because they do not have kitties, but of course, with five kids, who needs cats?

But my point here was (I digressed completely thinking about how excited I am to meet them) that when one is having visitors, sure, it’s great to straighten up the house a bit and make sure the spider webs are pretty well gone and even if the towels are like cardboard (as one of mama’s friends described the towels she was putting out for her visiting sister, with a bit of anxiety as I understood it), they are clean and there is great food in the fridge and the roses are blooming and the tomatoes are red and the basil is green and the spigariello is tall and what could be more welcoming than that, I ask you?

No worries, mate, as the Aussies say—just kick back and know that being invited at all is thrilling to most people and they don’t give a hoot about whether the dust bunnies are still under the bed (they call them moutons in French—don’t you love it?) or whether there is a bocce court in the yard, especially since they’ll be playing PETANQUE!!!

But when I visit them after they fall in love with me, I can’t wait to hit their court.

What a sandbox!