Friday Night: White Elephant Gift Exchange
Our friends Leslie and Jenny hosted the party at their home in San Francisco. It was obvious that both Leslie and Jenny really worked hard "working from home" to cook and decorate for the party.
Jenny's thinking 'Who put more vodka in my drink'? Andrea or Vin... you decide.
Leslie had her eye set on the cute flower beanie hat... unfortunately Rob did as well.
While free food, free drinks and catching up with friends are always nice, we were all there for mostly one thing... ending up with the best gift at the expense of your friends or at least ensuring that the special someone ends up with the crappiest gift.
This year two clear winners (or losers depending on your perspective) emerged from the exchange. Both Simon and Lauren were left with exquisite surprises as no one dared to take these marvelous treasures away from them. Some of the gift items that were preferred over Simon and Lauren's gifts were as follows:
- Jumper Cables
- Foot Spa
- Paint By Numbers
- Stress Balls
- Lip Gloss
So what did they end up with? To no one's surprise, the winning gifts were adult related products. Simon won the top draw with a couple of doses of Viagra and a pack of Handz Off Gum, while Lauren was close behind with a jar of Vaseline and a couple of Girls Gone Wild DVDs. They both acted disgusted and mortified but we all knew better... both Simon (with his wife Sharon) and Lauren (with her boyfriend Jason) would enjoy their early Christmas gifts. Ho-Ho-Ho... Merry Christmas!
Both Simon and his wife Sharon seemed a little too happy with the White Elephant gift. In fact with those little blue pills, Simon's on his way to becoming the White Elephant himself!!!
"I think I already have this one!" Really... who doesn't?
Oh and as for Andrea and I? Andrea ended up with the Paint By Numbers book (which she misplaced at the party) and I ended up with two stress balls and a mini flashlight. The mini flashlight will come in very handy when I pull speaker wires through my living room walls!!!
Saturday Night: We Clean Up Pretty Good
Andrea and I spent most of Saturday hot and sweaty in our master bedroom. Get your mind out of the gutter! We were busy stripping the last remaining globs of wall paper and finally removing all the glue off the plaster walls. If you are one of the fortunate few that has never heard any bleeping words coming out of Andrea or my mouth, you would have thought that we were a couple of sailors on shore leave. Wall paper is bad. Wall paper on top of wall paper is double bad. Wall paper on top of wall paper with layers of paint on top is @#*$-ing bad!
After a full day of peeling, scraping and sponging we headed to San Francisco to reward ourselves for a hard day's work. A few weeks ago, Andrea and I had a Date Night at Milano, an Italian restaurant not too far from our house. Andrea ordered the Tanglerini pomodore con Gamberetti and I ordered the Risotto Tatto mare e Zafferano. What we got was il crappo! So this time, we decided to do it right and go somewhere we knew the food would be good.
We arrived at Jardiniere around 8:30 PM for our dinner reservation. After laboring all day, a part of me had wanted to stay at home and relax. But once we arrived at Jardiniere, we were instantly surrounded by it's pleasant and luxurious atmosphere and I was glad I had decided to go on the Date. By the time we sat at our table, my stomach was growling loud enough to have gotten notice had it not been for the 3 piece jazz band playing a mix of Christmas tunes and Bee Bops. A little red wine, a little bread (with lot of butter of course), and a few laughs later we were ready for our meal.
Stairs leading up to our table. The picture on right is the exact table we sat at.
Andrea started with the Warm Bread Salad with Baby Artichokes and Marinated Bellwether Farm Crescenza Cheese, followed by the Cream of Mushroom Soup with Port Reduction. And for her main course Andrea chose the Alaskan Sablefish with Escarole, Smoked Bacon, Gala Apples, Fingerling Potatoes and Beurre Noisette... very delicious and very healthy I'm sure. Unlike Andrea, I was hungry. So naturally I had to have the Chef's Six Course Tasting Menu. I didn't think that 6 courses of extremely rich food were quite enough so I ordered an additional appetizer consisting of four fresh Oysters on the Half Shell with Champagne Mignonette and Fresh Horseradish. After slurping down the four Oysters, I was finally ready for my 6 course meal to begin. The following were the contents of my meal:
- Santa Barbara Prawns with Braised Matsutake Mushrooms, Baby Artichokes, Wild Arugula and Preserved Lemon Aioli,
- Poached Salmon with Tsar Nicoulai California Estate Caviar with Traditional Garnish,
- Roasted Butternut Squash with Wild Rice, Chanterelle Mushrooms, Swiss Chard, Braised Chestnuts and Truffle Nage,
- Dry Aged New York Steak with Roasted Celery Root, Baby Carrots, Fingerling Potatoes, Creamed Nettles and Sauce Bordelaise,
- Colorado Blue Cheese plate, and
- Pecan Pie with Sweet Potato Ice Cream.
Reading the list above now, I am shocked and ashmed at myself for being able to eat all that (I also had a cup of coffee as well). How can something that felt so right be but a shameless display of pure gluttony? Especially after the Thanksgiving feast! Perhaps that's why even after that cup of coffee, I struggled to stay awake on the ride home and passed out immediately when my head hit my pillow. All I can say is that Andrea is truly lucky and blessed to have found a life long Date partner like me!
1 comment:
Just wanted to point out that the distribution of prescription drugs such as Viagra, even in a "white elephant exchange" gift setting is against the Prescription Drug Marketing Act(PDMA)of 1987. The PDMA, which became effective on July 21, 1988, establishes restrictions on sales of prescription drug products and samples. Samples of prescription drug products may be distributed only if a licensed prescriber requests them. - Stephanie
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