"Top notch!"

As we left Elliot & Cindy's last night, I said "Top notch!" We had a lovely evening. For one thing, it was completely relaxed. Cindy is a most gracious hostess and the conversation was really quite pleasant - there were several times when all of us just burst out laughing at whatever had been said. Real laughter, that lingered and stayed a chuckle for even a few more seconds, not just polite affectations. After a tour of the lovely home - she favors antiques and staying true to the original architecture - we had dinner and then two rounds of Scrabble on the game set that Brian just got me. Good, good time.

This year has gotten off to a good start, actually. New Year's Day, Bri made sushi. No kidding. He and I love it and he loves to cook, so I got him a how-to-make-sushi kit for his birthday. Turns out, you also need a rice steamer, so I got him one of those for Christmas. So New Year's Day saw us here, with good friends in the dining room while he stood on the kitchen side of the counter and gave us a show. I made some run-of-the-mill cupcakes but they looked really cute on the cupcake tree that I just got. Pictures are worth a thousand words:

May we all live long and prosper.

Nanu-nanu.

Oh, wait, that's a different alien.

:-)