It's three hours before the party and I am completely knackered (British slang for tired and exhausted). I still have a wicked head cold that is doing a number on me. But despite several blips such as an all day funeral yesterday and the electric company mistakenly cutting our power yesterday, all is going well!

Yesterday was the quintessential day from hell. My aunt Rita died. She was married to my mom's brother Vincent, and she was a really nice lady. Anyway, her funeral was yesterday. First, at 9:30 a.m., we went to the viewing in one of those places on Funeral Row on Broad Street in South Philly. Afterwards we went to the church which was also in South Philly. Then we trekked through Southwest Philly to the cemetary and afterwards back across the city to another place for a luncheon - by which time it was 3 p.m. and we were all starving. The luncheon was punctuated by my 77 year old mother's anger at her 80 year old sister. Nice. My mom is dead right on this one, but I do not think a funeral reception is the place to vent your hostilities and Gina, Lisa and I all told her so. She managed to behave herself though I do think it took everything she had in her. I was imagining a senior citizen's rumble in front of a coffin.

After that, my mom went home with my aunt and uncle and Lisa, Gina and I went to 30th Street Station to pick up Chris, who was coming back from D.C. The traffic was a nightmare and it took a long time to get home. Chris and I got back to our place around 6:30 to find our electricity had been cut off for nonpayment, which was wrong! I started hyperventilating but managed to pull it together and call PSE&G to find the problem had nothing to do with us. We had to prove we bought the house on August 9th by faxing our settlement sheet to them. Off the three of us (me, Chris and Henry) went to Tom's office. I got a really nice gal at PSE&G and schmoozed the hell out of her and after she was satiusfied that we are the new owners of this house, she managed to get the electricity turned back on within the hour. They apologized when they came back and we breathed a sigh of relief!

I've just showered and am going to take a nap and chill out for a few hours before the party starts. Hopefully, I'll update this in the next few days with some drunken party pics!