Philosophers, philosophers everywhere!

Last night we had ten philosophers over at our house. We’ve had fairly large groups, particularly when Nelson was here and cooking up a storm, but this is our first full shindig by ourselves, with our own food. It’s also the first time we’ve had professors over. The food was well-received, and although our living room is small, all seemed happy and well-fed by the end of the night. I think people find our little house kind of amusing (if we have the hallway closed off, keeping cat pan out of sight, the only way to the bedroom is through our tiny bathroom), and I’m grateful that they’re amused, rather than dismayed. Our bookshelves are also a big hit with the academic crowd, and what with the books, the canned goods on display, and his cooking (of vegetables he grew), Sydney looked pretty good all around 🙂 He and I worked out a system to make sure preparations were in hand: I did lots of prep work far in advance, since it makes me antsy to leave things ’til the last. So the house was cleaned, baked veggies were in the oven, and a casserole was made well before we were expecting guests, and I only had pretty salad preparations to do closer to the time of arrival. Sydney did most of the frenetic work, with several saucepans going as people were arriving, so that we could also serve fussy pasta dishes and whatnot, and threw in extra dishes of various sorts to fill our menu (“I thought I’d make some corn, too, and a baked beet dish”). Thanks to some recent contributions to my dish collection from my mom, we had plenty to go around, and I did dishes in our kitchen (which is actually in the living room, anyway) as I watched the conversation groups form and reform, so that by the time everyone left we once again had a clean kitchen. Knowing that we are not big bakers of delicate pastries, we were grateful that one of the attendees offered to bring dessert (thanks, Alice!), so we also got a bit of surprise and oohing and ahhing out of the meal. All in all, it was good fun and a great way to build our hosting self-esteem.

Erin