Impending Dinner

I'm thinking of live blogging (in an extended sense) tomorrow to let you all follow along in my dinner party process.

So far, I've planned the menu, read through the recipes of the dishes I haven't made before (most of them) and gotten a sense of when things should be done. For example, I'm roasting chicken, which was prepped a day in advance (didn't get the herbs to shove under the skin yet, dammit), and I'm making a crepe cake, which needs to have some time to set in the fridge. I'll be making that tomorrow morning.
I wrote out the grocery list and made sure of what I have. I meant to go shopping this evening, but a therapeutic drink with a friend turned into a whole evening of chat. Oh well, I forgot my list at home, anyway. ;)
So, that'll happen tomorrow morning as well.
I've put a rough timeline together of when different parts should be started, but that'll be thrown to hell (in a good way) when my parents come over early and offer to help. So, at least I've run through the process a time or two in my head.

If that sounds terribly planned out (for me at least), I'll have to tell you the stress mess one of my dinner parties was like a couple parties ago. I invented a dish on the fly and without aid until just before the dinner started. Taught me a lesson, and even though everything turned out fine (dish tasted great, people had fun), I'll never do it that way again.

I invited Admiral Legs, but she was unable to come due to a family gathering. I thought she said she was free that evening, but I have a terrible memory and should have confirmed. :(
Next time.

The other thing I need to do is tidy the house. So, that'll probably be between shopping and cake making and the arrival of the parents.

Since I've been away from my computer a lot this week (on the jobsite), I thought this might be a great opportunity to do a periodically updated post that keeps you entertained and abreast of the process.