We have our housewarming in a few weeks - it was going to be Halloween but I ended up with a late teaching shift that day (my shifts suck every other week, but at least it isn't every week!) so we put it back to a week where I'm off on Fridays instead. It would have been doable on the original date, kind of, but combining 'let's have a party after work' with 'don't show up before 7 because I'll be in my underwear painting myself green' wouldn't work. ('If you show up before 7 I'll be in my underwear painting myself green' isn't an invitation I feel ready to issue to colleagues of two months standing...)

The backstory to my analness runs as follows: we aim to start the party pretty early and invite people to drop in after work. But I suspect things will also go on later than our normal dinnertime. I *hope* things will go on later than our normal dinnertime! So that means having some sort of food around, probably pizza and maybe chilli or corn chowder. Food means ingredients, some of them heavy. So, I have a list. It details the ingredients of the things I want to make, with little symbols for which things are heavy, which need to be bought especially, which can't be got in the shop I normally go to - you get the idea. Anal, and a few weeks premature. But it does enable me to buy the heavy stuff in advance and have it stashed away until I need it, and that's a big thing for me.

Obviously I seem anal. Ducki laughs at me every time because his idea of planning a party is much more last minute. But I like to be relaxed and in a good mood when I'm having people over, and not having to run to the shop for flour at the last minute helps with that. So, I'll stick with the list!