Still putting my vacation time to good abuse
Yes, we're still alive over here. I've simply been playing too much Left 4 Dead. Oh, okay . . . I did more than just that. There are things that come before zombies, after all – consider good friends and good food, our ongoing theme.
On Saturday, we visited our friends A. and J.-A., and their son D. It was a lovely evening. A. is a master of Italian cooking, and he drew on his skills to break with the "Christmas food, Christmas food, and yet more Christmas food" pattern that one fears when visiting over the winter holidays. He assembled a fine meal of fresh pasta with his famous sauce – a sauce that he sets aside an entire day to make each autumn. This centerpiece was surrounded by all manner of other goodies, including a smashing cheese course. We had Italian sweets for dessert, notably torrone, which I liked and had actually never had!
We continued the visiting on Sunday by spending the evening with our friends E. and D., and their daughter Z. It was Z.'s sixth birthday, but she's a princess and prefers an evening with Big People to an afternoon with kids. Thus, we had sushi from Wakamono (the best sushi place in my neighborhood). There was, of course, birthday cake – a chocolate-raspberry mousse cake to die for. A fun time was had by all, and as is customary, Z. got to tackle me and pull my hair, while I got to act like a zombie and make her hide and scream (until she realized that I wasn't chasing her, whereupon she had to find me so that I could give her another excuse to hide and scream).
Today we kept to ourselves. We restocked our rather depleted wine reserves, taking advantage of Christmas money. All told, we got 20 bottles, including several excellent deals – notably a 2005 Bordeaux underpriced on a technicality and a Slovenian wine that's considered godly in its homeland but ignored by conventional critics. When we got home, we spent a little time sorting and cataloguing our stock. For those who dig on quantity, I've stuck a couple of photos behind the cut.