. . . and here we are, in the quiet. The young people have flitted south till Sunday, and now Tom and I have a day to borrow dining-room chairs, acquire many dozens of bagels, pick up the branches that blew down in the rainstorm, count dessert plates, wash the dust off the gravy boat, and accomplish other such party-management tasks.

I've hardly been able to read a book. Scrabble, crossword puzzles, and grocery lists are my sole wordplay. Yesterday, after the kids left, I meant to go upstairs and edit. But what I did was fall asleep on the couch with the cat. Oh well. Party planning requires much stamina.