Rain is my favorite weather, so I’m enjoying this summer so far. Of course, I have enough empathy to feel sorry for sun-lovers, in much the same way that I feel a little sorry for cannibals who are upset that it is illegal to eat people.

Whenever it rains as much as it has been lately, I am reminded of Rod Steiger on the surface of Venus in the film The Illustrated Man, based on the book by Ray Bradbury.

Besides being one of my favorite actors, Rod Steiger is also the best-connected actor in Hollywood (in the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon sense) even better-connected than Kevin Bacon, for example, because has acted in so many different kinds of movies, according to someone who researched that.

And Bradbury was my favorite author when I was a kid devouring the sort of fiction he writes.

Anyway. Rain.

We had people over for dinner yesterday. Including a friend of Beta’s, whom we did not expect. As Gamma said to her two friends staying over, whom we also did not expect, “the French people are coming, and their friends, and their friends’ kids.” I think there were 14 of us. I stood outside in the rain and barbecued chicken satay, with the grill under the eaves of the house so the rain wouldn’t put out the coals. It made the side of the house a little hot but nothing caught on fire and the food was good.

Afterwards everyone played whatever musical instruments they played. Beta played the harp. A French girl played the piano. I put on a single-malt whiskey tasting thing for some of the guests, then I played my tin whistles.

Afterwards Beta broke boards with her fist. (Yesterday afternoon, preparing for our guests, we discovered that it’s fun to break boards with your fist. ) I don’t recommend doing this without proper supervision. I can just see someone punching an oak board against the grain and breaking their wrist. Impressed her little sister and her friends.