whispers at the bus stop

Happy birthday, Terry! It's been quite the week of celebrations; Lauren's bachelorette was on Saturday, my birthday was on Tuesday, and Terry's birthday was today - which means that for the past few days, I've followed a pattern of "Day 1: drinking, Day 2: recovering, Day 3: preparing for next drinks". I'm kind of ready for a break (or at least my liver is), but since I'm traveling next week, it's unclear whether I'll get one.

sssanyway, I spent today preparing for tonight's festivities; Terry had invited some of her friends for a dinner party, and I quietly staged a coup and offered to cook the main and the dessert so that she didn't have to do so much on her birthday (especially since she would be coming home from the office today, further cutting into her prep time). So, I spent the morning working, then went to the grocery store to pick up some things the other grocery store didn't have last night, and then came home and spent the afternoon cooking. I made creme brulee (YUM - I've gotten quite good at this, although I still need to perfect my torching technique), and I also made chicken bouillabaise (also yum). I also got to play with my new food processor that my parents got me for my birthday; the short version is that I think I'm in love with it, but I shouldn't have made my first test recipe be a mayonnaise, since mayonnaise is somewhat tricky anyway and I never did get it to emulsify. C'est la vie and all that.

But the dinner party was super fun; two of Terry's friends from b-school came, as well as one of her coworkers (whom I knew I loved when I met her a few months ago and she was similarly obsessed with the Olympics) and Lauren (aka Subz, whom you've met here before). Terry's sister also came, although she came only for the pre-dinner stuff (odd), so there were six of us for dinner, and it was quite delightful. Terry used her fancy china, and she also made crab dip and put out cheese for appetizers, and then made shrimp caesar salad for the first course. And we continued Lauren's tradition of asking about reflections on the previous year and goals for the following year, which yielded some v. interesting conversation (helped along by several bottles of wine).

And now everyone is gone and the kitchen is in some mild semblance of order (mostly meaning that the dishes are stacked for washing at some later day), and I need to sleep so that I can start my recovery period as quickly as possible. Goodnight!