A night with friends

Last night was time for the annual celebration that is Mike's birthday. I got to give my prom date some sage advice, which he gave me on my birthday only weeks ago: "27 - only 13 years until you're 40!"

We came down to Lincoln Park and ate at Wilde Restaurant & Bar, which has a lot of Irish pub food. I got a rather strange pulled pork sandwich, which had shaved lunch meat, cole slaw, and frizzled onions. Dave got a burger, which he liked.

Some of Mike's friends brought a really awesome chocolate cake from the Swiss Bakery, and as you can see, it was very beautiful.

After eating at the bar, we dislodged the car from its parking spot (which was hard earned by Dave) and drove over to Mike's house for some food and booze.


Things were all right for a while - my cookies were a hit! - but predictably Mike started getting a little bit belligerent and organized a group photo that turned out pretty fun:


As you can see, quite a few people came out to celebrate Mike's birthday!

I got to see some people I haven't seen for a while, especially some high school and college folks. We had seen Mike last month when he did our taxes in exchange for Indian food, but it is always nice to see him again.

With me holding a bottle of sparkling wine, this picture makes it look like I was big-time drinking. In truth, the swig of this sparkling wine was the only drink I had all night. I am getting over the flu, so I opted not to get toasted.

It was also fun to talk to people about our planned trip this fall, which I don't think I've mentioned on this blog yet. Dave and I are returning to Europe this fall for a two-week trip to London and Paris! And better yet, we're bringing Rob and Diane with us!

Diane just bought our plane tickets yesterday, and we're going to book the Chunnel train tickets and hotels this week. I really want to get the plans wrapped up before I graduate, because I don't want to worry about anything this summer besides passing the bar.

Cheers to Mike, and cheers to our fall trip! And cheers to my impending graduation!