For me the Perseid meteor shower has been poor every year because without fail there are clouds in the sky on August 12. Have been every time I've looked for the Perseids since the first time I saw them at summer camp 29 years ago. This year, even if there are no clouds, there's going to be a brilliant moon spoiling the shower. This Nasa website on the 2006 Perseids suggests viewing before the moon rises for rare “Earth grazers” (that is, meteors that hit the atmosphere nearly horizontally and skip across the sky like a rock bouncing on a pond.) Apparently this type of Perseid is very rare, and you are likely to only see 1 or 2 before the moon rises and ruins the show. Murphy's law dictates that this year, the sky will be brilliantly clear just to piss me off. Wait and see. 
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I'm reasonably sure that Mr. Murphy will be standing by to ruin ANY chance to see the Perseids. As I recall, we've gone through dozens of bags of Doritos and bottles of soda waiting for the meteor shower that NEVER came.
Tom
I don't know if it was the perseids, but I remember when I was a child a particular meteor shower party. It turned out to be cloudy, so my parents packed us into the car and drove up to Walden Pond, with a sort of “anybody who wants to stay is welcome, anybody who wants to come is welcome… goodbye!”
Hospitality be damned where meteors are concerned!