I sympathise with michaelr.

My old college buddy has a ditzy wife who takes in strays of both the feline and canine varieties. I see these people about once or twice a year, and lately I find this experience almost intolerable because of a noisy, aggressive beagle that charges me on entry and barks incessantly the whole time I'm there. If that weren't enough (I rather think it should be), the house is always a maelstrom of muddle and it reeks of cats' box.

For the sake of auld lang syne, I continue to visit Animal House on occasions such as Boxing Day and my old buddy's birthday, but I do not expect my husband to join me. I make excuses and am even prepared to lie to maintain the veneer of convention that keeps me from telling off the ditzy wife and thus wrecking a friendship that dates back to 1980.

Sometimes being bourgeois is hard work.