I lied about the wheels!

This week has been a great one, with friends home from far away places and lots of food and drinking. In order to have time to see all our friends, we had a party at our fantastic little apartment. Tim and Christine McCarty, home from Boston; Patrick, Barnes home from Oregon; Zach Biehler, home from Wisconsin; Andy Nicholson, home from San Francisco; and those who haven't gon quite so freaking far away - Dan, Gold, Kris Party Phillips, Zach Curd, Mike, Babs, Jack, Brad, Sam, Marianne, Jason, Maureen, Jimmy, John Sapp, and some weird people no one but Andrew knew. If I'm forgetting anyone, may lightning strike me down. Sadly, not in attendace were Pete and Walker, neither of whom left the relative warmth and beauty of northern California, and Josh, who apparently likes New York more than any person. Who can blame him?

We requested that everyone bring food to the party, a brilliant idea as there are some real decent cooks among us. Brie fondue, more than one kind of lasagna, spinach dip, vegetables, peanut butter pie, hummus and pita, and a delicious, delicious queso dip provided by the tostitos company (or something similar). More importantly, there was booze a-plenty. Case after case of, generally, cheap beer, a forty ounce (mine, in tribute to Walker), wine, and lord knows what else. For the record, Tim drank almost a complete fifth of Johnny Walker red label by himself. There was maybe one glass left. Either way, we were all feeling it the next morning when we woke up and walked around the corner for breakfast at Nello's. After breakfast, most everyone departed. I left soon thereafter for recovery and xmas at Nana and Poppy's. When I left, though, Patrick, Zach B, and Andrew were playing risk and drinking again.

I've missed everyone a lot and hope that, despite the great distances between us, we can still make time to visit each other. There is great pressure for a Boston trip sometime soon, and, time and money allowed, I'll be more than happy to be anyone's house guest.