As you know, my friend Beverly was here the first weekend in June.  Then Luke arrived home from Thailand last week, and on the weekend I invited mom to come up for a night.  Yesterday Margaret arrived for a few days of spa-like living, but mercifully Luke drove off for the oil patch this morning.

So it’s been a wonderful opportunity to cook and bake and you know how much I love that.  Because Margaret and Luke were here, Denis came over for dinner last night and I made Thai curried chicken.  Luke always has to have chocolate mousse when he’s home so I made an extra-large amount of that.

Luke forced Margaret and Nicky to drink some of the Thai whiskey he’d brought home with him, and they stupidly did.  Both looked quite sick for a long time, and then this morning Margaret said she felt really ill.  Of course the 3-ounce cocktail and the entire bottle of wine she consumed on top of the whiskey probably added to it all.

Luke said he had a grand time in Thailand, and had a bunch of photo albums and videos for us to see.  He talks to Jan on Skype as always, so in the mornings I was able to wave hello to her over in Bangkok.  They bought a piece of land in her village and Luke says he wants to build a house there because everything’s so cheap.

The only fly in the ointment of course is Jan, whose dream it is to live in Canada.  She said to him the other day, “You love Thailand more than me.”  I tell you, he certainly lived there in his past life because this isn’t normal.

He plays Thai music on his computer and tells enraptured stories about herding water buffalo with his father-in-law.  He showed us a photo of the whole fam out for dinner in a restaurant for the first time in their lives.  Luke said old man Bunyung didn’t know how to use a knife and fork as he’d never done it before.  Amazing, eh?

But now Luke’s driven off to find his fortune somewhere in Saskatchewan and to save money for his house project over in Thailand.  And now I can concentrate on Margaret who’s here to celebrate a fabulous new job and to have a small holiday before working like a frightened idiot until Christmas.

Today I baked banana bread and a really nice white layer cake which was in last month’s Martha Stewart.  It’s a really simple recipe, but it turned out nice and moist.  I cut it into four layers, and filled them with raspberry jam and butter cream icing.  I think cake always makes a celebration seem more official.

I’m celebrating owning the sweetest, most adorable lil’ puppy in the whole wide world.  When mom came up she said “He’s the cutest dog you’ve had so far.”  Margaret is ga ga over him, and can’t stop taking photos and videos.  She said he’s what you think of when you hear the word puppy.  Indeed.

So with family, friends and pets about, head buried in a cookbook, I’m one happy mini Martha.