We just had our first dinner party

The place is coming along well enough that we decided it's finally safe to invite people over. So we invited everyone who helped us in our five-month moving adventure to come over tonight for a blowout thank-you dinner.

Unfortunately, not everyone could come tonight. Including the fiancé, who forgot it was on our calendar and booked himself on a trip and ended up in another city for the evening. Sigh. At least he's pretty.

But the brave few who did show up were treated to clean bathrooms, strategically hidden clutter, four fully painted rooms, a dining room painted in little test splotches of colors we're considering, and a menu I made up all by myself:

Hearty vegetable-bean soup
Cheesy garlic bread
Baked chicken breasts stuffed with spinach, basil and onion
Steamed green beans
Individual glazed chocolate Bundt cakes

Notice there was no mention of appetizers on that list. Or drinks. That's because in my preparing-a-dinner-party-all-by-myselfedness I totally forgot about them. Fortunately, I had some fussy crackers on hand. And the guests brought wine. And everyone had a good time despite all the unpainted walls and frat-house hors d'oeuvres.

And to make the fiancé jealous, I sent him a picture of the glazed chocolate Bundt cakes. I accidentally made too much glaze (damn! gotta lick the spoon again!) so they ended up looking like Dunkin' Donuts instead of faux-fussy desserts. But nobody complained, and everyone left full and happy, and it's now almost 1:00 in the morning so instead of signing off with something clever, I'll just show you my Bundt cakes. If you know what I mean.