Yesterday was a day of good food, good conversation, and further games. I took the dog for a walk down to the duck pond and around through the fake historic neighborhood, but wasn’t able to rouse my family to go be tourists.

We like the guy #2 daughter brought to visit.

Does it matter whether your family likes the person you’re dating? Does it matter whether that person likes your family?

On the one hand, I’m inclined to say that it does matter. Often, when your friends and family don’t see the person’s wonderful qualities, it is because they are not as blinded by infatuation as you are. You, having become enchanted by the sultry eyes or tinkling laugh of the beloved one, have gone right ahead and persuaded yourself that he or she is refreshingly naive, not as dumb as a post, or decided that the overall skankiness your siblings notice right away is actually an edgy daring quality that is highly attractive.

At the same time, it is often a matter of what you’re used to. And there are many long-married couples whose friends and family still haven’t figured out what he/she saw in him/her.

We have church today, two services since #2 daughter is singing her solo in the first service. She and M. Bassoon may not stay for the second, but I’m in the choir. I have made two different kinds of cranberry muffins for breakfast, and hope to make beef stew to put in the crockpot before I leave. I have a show this afternoon, and having lunch ready when I get home from church would be a real blessing. Bread machines and slow cookers are, I once heard it said, the modern equivalent of having servants. Of course, you do still have to get the ingredients in there, so I guess I had better go do that.