enough already with the politics!

last night while the country was tuned into iowa i was entertaining the family. i had invited about 25 people over for dinner - children, sister, brother-in-law, nephew and assorted aunts, uncles and cousins. i had them all come early so we could watch the returns from iowa, thinking that it would make for good dinner table conversation. what a huge mistake!

we have an open kitchen and when the guests saw that the main ingredient for dinner was ground beef, i heard a rumble and then a grumble and suddenly, when i looked up, i found our dinner guests had divided themselves up around the room. my son and about five other people were standing under a hastily written sign that said "meatballs and spaghetti", my daughter seemed to be leading a group crowded around a "meatloaf" sign. my sister was agitating for tacos and a cousin, who i barely even speak to, seemed to have taken a firm stand on chilli. there were just two lone souls who were promoting hamburgers, but since one of them was only three years old, they were not taken too seriously. my guests were caucusing on my dinner menu. it was obvious from the first count that the chilli and hamburger contingent was not viable and so those small groups had to move on to their second choice. the three year old did not take it well.

as the meatballs and spaghetti group seemed to have had the winning numbers, they triumphed, though i did hear some muttering about negative campaigning and over spending, but i chose to ignore it. my son made a stirring acceptance speech and dinner turned out well. except for the three year old - he threw a tantrum and i ended up making him hamburgers anyway. perhaps there is a lesson in that.