The game is afoot tonight!

The idea was first hatched several months ago. The Blind German Mechanics, our local Sherlock Holmes society, would go on a “field trip” to one of those mystery dinner events at, say, the Embassy Suites. Or maybe we’d gather at the nearby melodrama theater for hotdogs and a show.

Well, after much haggling and plotting, that Sherlockian “field trip” occurs tonight. At my house.

And believe me, that’s a good thing. I’m not bitchin’. Not really. After all, the house and yards are now in the shape I’ve wanted for a decade.

But it remains to be seen whether we pull it off. This group — all 12 of us — is just a tad eccentric and disjointed. And in five years, we've never assembled anywhere but a convenient Borders or Starbucks. Will everybody find my house? Is there enough parking space? Will anybody be freaked by my gigantic (but not too demonic) hound — and her canine buddy, who’s been visiting for the past ten days? Will the frozen lasagna be hot and ready at 7:00? Will the Game — yes, one of our flock has pieced together a mystery for us to solve — really be afoot?

But there’s still vacuuming to be done, a bathroom to be scrubbed, and a deerstalker to be donned. Must dash.

If I don’t mention this again, just figger all went well. If something intriguing comes of the evening, I’ll report in later.