We came up with a plan. Bob and the guys will play live. I am the DJ.

My turntable, mixer, etc. is staying home though. I'm being a "digital DJ". I picked out nearly 10 hours of music from our library. Last time I looked our 100Gb of tunes will play without repetition for 30 days straight! More music is added daily due to my current vinyl/cassette digitization frenzy.

What perfect timing! Divine Order reveals itself: I just finished digitizing all my 12" 45's of early hip hop and other excellent fun dance music. Stuff like Frankie Smith's "Double Dutch Bus", Grand Master Flash & the Furious Five's "The Message", Schoolly D's "Nightmare on My Street", Cameo's "Flirt" or Zapp doing "Dance Floor parts 1 & 2". Whoo Hoo!

I assembled 4 zip files of tunes, uploaded them to my server, and made a cute little web page with links & detailed instructions how to download and deal with the files then emailed it to Melissa. Next I prepared playlists of dance mixes for her iTunes to play using the files I sent her through audio gear me and Bob are bringing from home. Is that 21st century or what!

I can look after Scrap, visit, and mess with my playlists on her computer as the party's vibe shifts. I'm bringing cords to route the tunes from her computer to either Bob's PA, my spare amp & set of speakers, or perhaps a pair of powered monitor speakers (called "HotSpots") Bob has. My preference is using the PA, but we'll see what shakes tomorrow.

Bob is trying to convince me to bring my digital projector to do a light show. I love doing that at home. I don't want to look after the projector at a party. I want to relax and have fun.

Ha! Just now Bob came in and said, "Hey, by the way- who's driving"

I said, "let's take a cab"

The Marin town where Melissa lives has totally bothersome small town cops. Neither Bob or I will drink and drive. Bob loves to drink- way more than me. According to the California DMV someone my size has to wait 2 hours after 1 drink to drive. I think I want to party hearty more than that permits. Parking by her place will be hill-gnarly too. Cab it is.

I am so excited about the party! Scrappy will get a bath tomorrow to look really good for it. Melissa is his "other Mom", an important part of his past. She even took him (without me) on his first camping trip.

I take Scrappy nearly everywhere I go. He has a cool dog purse I wear over my shoulder. He loves to ride around in it at night clubs, movie theaters, and especially parties. The purse keeps him out of trouble- it is hard to nip ankles or eat too much party food from there.