The Art of Summer Entertaining + The Texas FLOODING

or maybe, the ART of "tabletop"

tabletop from Oscar de la Renta


as most of us know, the "art" of entertaining begins with the host or hostess thinking through
the entire experience long before the 1st guest arrives.

& once the "experience" has been conceived & made possible mentally,
it's the guest list...actually it's the most important part, isn't it?

I know, I know, when we have family celebrations the guest list is somewhat fixed,
but even then it's nice to add an extra or two just to mix things up.

for me, the most fun is having friends; most of whom know each other.
but I always try to add someone new who is very interesting, who has a lot to say
(intelligent things, that is), and can keep the conversation going.

it's a bittersweet moment for me when the party's over.

we know we did a good job, the guests had lots of fun, the wines were excellent,
and everyone ate their dessert.

but, like everything else, when it's wonderful we hate for it to end.

what's your favorite kind of entertaining?
do you do any during summer?

NOTE:  Houston has experienced some hideous flooding overnight.
as you know, I now live in a high rise.
last night a neighbor came around knocking on doors telling people to move the cars
out of the garage as IT WAS FLOODING !!
the garage is underground.

of course, the elevators were out because water was in the parking garage
elevator shafts.

down the stairs I went, running.
waded through about 12-18" of rain water to my car, which already had water
3/4 of the way over the tires.
luckily, I got it moved out in time, as did most people.
but, there were plenty of cars still in there as there are residents who travel all the time.

today, everyone (the workmen) are standing around trying to decide how to tackle this.
they're going to have to PUMP the water out.

electricity is out all over the city,
life has come to a stand-still until the water recedes.

once again it comes to me that life in Kentucky would be very good.
I've often thought that Kentucky is the only state which doesn't suffer
natural disasters !




footnote:
I've been watching CNN most of the day because their coverage of what happened
in Texas is better than our local news (because they cover LOCAL news).

the worst of the storm seems to have been the rivers flooding in our hill country,
a dam broke and the waters simply washed away many homes.
washed them off their foundations!
there are many families who have suffered tragic losses of family members.

please pray for them.