The birthday celebrations were a

The birthday celebrations were a big success. This might have been the most fun I’ve had for the least amount of planning in a long time. Or maybe it’s just that compared to a wedding, sending out a group email and showing up at a bar is a real breeze. I had my reservations about the tiki bar, in that there was a high chance of the cheesy factor being sky high, but it turned out the cheesy factor was set just right. We had just come from a lovely dinner wherein Krista had ordered us lemon drops and the waitress had brought us five lychee martinis instead so, yes, I was going into the bar with a very open mind. Krista again took charge of the drink situation and got us all up to the bar for flaming tiki torches: shots in tiny tiki heads that were lit on fire. We even got tiny marshmallows to roast over our tiny drink fires before they went out. After those, there was a shared flaming punch bowl.

Let me tell you something about flaming drinks: yes. Also, you know what is surprising? When you order a frozen drink and the bartender jams a straw into the middle of the drink and then fills the straw with some ungodly strong liquor and you don’t see this happen? Your first sip is…a bit of a surprise. After you finish blowing fire across the room and replace the eyeballs that you squeezed out of their sockets, your friend Tom might tell you that, oh yeah he saw something on some show about some tiki bar doing that, ha ha.

Heather joined us later and gave me what might be the best present, if not the most obscure, I’ve ever received: two tubes of Toms of Maine toothpaste and a bar of fancy chocolate. It takes someone who’s known you for 17 years to know that you love some Toms of Maine toothpaste but maybe don’t splurge on it like you used to. This is a friend who appreciates the subtle generosity of a practical gift. My gifts were all about practicality this year. In addition to the kitchen gear, I also got a kick ass yoga outfit (thanks, Krista!), cookies from one of my favorite bakeries (thanks, Christina and Penny!), clothing gift certificates, a cookbook, and a spatula/whisk/gripper tool (which came looking a little used. Thanks, Grandma!).

Which "Lost" star was aware that it was my birthday? Flickr tells no lie.

I am still slammed at work, working extra hard to finish this “being funny” project. I came to the conclusion that the more stressed out you are about being funny, the less funny the thing you are trying to make funny actually seems, regardless of actual funniness to a later, more relaxed audience. I’m not sure if this is good or not.

J and I just got back from a meeting with someone who is a bit of an eccentric. She invited us for dinner, but then spent the first half hour we were there pulling out random vegetarian things (low-sodium crackers! Rice cakes! Sour cream!) out of cabinets and tossing them on the counter for us to help ourselves to. This included uncommented-upon incidents where she pulled a bag of corn chips out of the fridge and cooked a pile of phyllo dough triangles in a microwave. She gave J a piece of frozen cheesecake for dessert. I drank ¾ of the bottle of wine I brought.

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