How come...

 Today hubby and I were supposed to have lunch in a restaurant. Restaurant visits have become hugely expensive, so those are rare these days. But it´s tradition in our family during the days around Valentine´s Day, a tradition that got interrupted by Covid for two years in a row. I do not approve of cut flowers, they wither away within a few days. I do not like chocolate- am already rolling around! So imagine- no number one to five visiting, no grandchildren, no cooking... No cooking? There´s always a catch somewhere! Yesterday quite late in the evening hubby got a call from number two- Dad, I have a big duck on my kitchen counter. Will you two have lunch with us? Hubby said yes, as usual, and trodded to the studio to confront me with the new situation. Now these lunch-dinners (too late for lunch, too early for the second) are a dangerous path to tread: we are given the impression that we get a free meal but end up with doing the side dishes (my job), do repair work in the house (hubby's field of work) and have at least one date for next week, when we are supposed to have Cassian overnight. Today it's dumplings and red cabbage for me to do, and hubby has to help with Cassian's new wardrobe. Still nothing about our next rendezvous with grandchild number four. So instead of Valentine´s lunch in a restaurant we now have another family meeting. And then there´s the duck- I do not like duck. I eat it, but it´s nowhere near my favourite dish...
Now it´s down to the kitchen, to do the stuffing and the cabbage, even though I should have steak and the like for lunch :(( We will barely make it back home before evening, then it will be TV with hubby, a short nap in front of the TV for me then Super Bowl with pizza. Or the other way round, depends on how thrilling the game will be...