A Visit from James

[ailbhe]

Today we had a visit from James, one of Rob's friends from university, who came to our engagement party (which was too, too lovely of him, given how good Rob is at keeping in touch with people) and visited our new house and sent me a birthday card and is generally what my mother would call a very nice boy. She calls Rob a very nice boy too. And a poor boy, as in "Are you looking after that poor boy?"

So we spent the morning tidying so that we could fool James into thinking we were housetrained, and we had yet another almost-row over the furniture in the library. James arrived while we were dragging armchairs around and swearing and snapping at each other, so I immediately demanded that he have a brilliant idea and solve the problem. He did, too, by suggesting something which I had vetoed when we first moved in and had no armchairs, and Rob had assumed was permanently vetoed. It wasn't, so we moved the TV to the middle of the wall opposite the window. Disadvantages: It can be clearly seen from the street if it's on or if the lights are on and the curtains are open. Advantages: it makes the speakers easier to position, which makes the armchairs easier to position. Disadvantages: it takes up more floor space. Advantages: It takes up less wall-space (more shelves! Woo!) and the speakers take up less floor-space.

Also, we ate spaghetti bolognese when Janice came over for dinner, and we all four played Settlers of Catan, which is getting addictive. Then James left (after helping us move the TV and a bookcase full of books, including kitten-herding) and we watched extracts from Fantasia 2000.

A slightly worrying phonecall about family Stuff kept me awake more than I wanted to be, but apart from that, a wonderful day.