The Sober Review

It's somewhat difficult to follow drunken Tony.

It really was a great party! Megan and Guy were the first guests to arrive. Guy set up and maintained the fire and Megan helped Tony find the recipe for Sunday breakfast. And Guy had this hat. Very few people can wear a fried egg, bacon and mushy peas on their heads without looking foolish. Thanks to Megan, Guy did a beautiful job. You can see this for yourself at toaster.albeterlli.com:85/weblog/ (I haven't figured out how to do links yet, but it's worth the typing). Jessica and Anthony arrived from Kentucky next. This set up the dynamic of veterinarians and their non-vet partners quite nicely. Megan is in a lab animal residency/PhD program and Jessica will be finishing her PhD and starting a pathology residency this fall. Guy also has a Masters. Lots of education floating around the room.

I don't remember the order of everyone else's arrival (sorry), but at 7:30 the party was officially kicked off by throwing a wooden dragon head in the fire. We figure that about 20 people made it to the party including Carrie and James from Chicago, Bridgitt from Lansing, Jen from Lima, David, Karen, Brooke, Katie, Ann and Bill from RAH, Brian, Darrin, Jessica, Ken, Chris, Corrie, Greg (if I'm forgetting anyone please forgive me). A lot of people for our little house.

There was a lot of food, too. I made mushroom stuffed mushrooms, black forest icebox cookies, miscellaneous premade treats and Aztec Elixer Haute Chocolate from Vosges. Tony made tortilla chips, coconut-crab treats and blueberyy/raspberry pecan french toast for breakfast on Sunday. Jessica brought lovely brownies. Chris brought a tex/mex dip. Ann brought Key Lime pie and Bill made spicy chex mix. Guy brought a trunk load of wood to feed our fire. Mmmmm, wood.

There were also a lot of drinks. We'd stocked up on some basics (mmmmmm, Caramel Temptation), but may other lovely beverages were brought along. Anthony made everyone B-52s, Tony made his signature Pink Squirrels. Katie created a lovely treat that she called a Caramel Pajama (I don't remember what 's in it now except for the Caramel Temptation - mmmm),

Surprisingly, not many games were played. A large part of the evening was spent chatting. To be fair, Darrin and Brian did beat Brooke and Katie at eucher with our scary palying cards. I guess that you could call "guess what stage of drunkeness Tony's at " a game, too. He happily announced about 11:30 that he was almost at Stage 6 ("When I talk about my sex life"). Shortly after that people started leaving. Hmmm ... As the evening continued we did break out the PS2 for some rousing rounds of Karaoke Revolution. Most of the remaining guests sang at least once. Carrie is the reigning champion of "One Week". David wins for best performance and Guy without a doubt was the most enthusiastic. I will always enjoy the memory of Guy and Tony singing "You're The One that I Want". There was much laughter until the remaining 8 of us (Guy, Megan, Carrie, James, Anthony, Jessica, Tony and me) straggled our way to bed at 3:30.

I woke up at 9:30 to the happy voices of Tony, Jess, Megan and Anthony. Tony got breakfast started and we enjoyed the special french toast and bacon (the house still smells a little bacony). Sadly, the snow and promised winter mix meant that everyone had to leave early. Jessica and Anthony stayed alittle later to chat, but Kentucky is a long way away. Thus eneded the magnificent Pajama Party of 2005. Those of you who couldn't make it did miss out, but we'll invite you next year.

Guy left his hat behind. I mailed it to him yesterday.
James, I hope that the final went well.

Pajama Party!

For all those how missed it - you missed out!

Those of you who came but are already gone - thanks! but you missed out!

The remaining partiers (at 2:22 AM) are staying the night, and we've been karaoke-ing for...about two hours. This is the joy/curse of being the last dozen or so at the party... when the crowd things, we sp;cethings up with wacky fun.

We have leanred that Guy likes to sing, and we like bearing witness to Guy singing, but not necessarily for the fine quality of his musical stylings. (luv you, guy, but stick to our day job). At least he gets all the words right (which i seem incapble of).

Photots will follow tomorrow (if I get around to it) sharing all the pictorial fun i had the drunnken snese tio capture (which, sadly, isn't enough.)

No apologies forpoor typing, as I'm drunk..

Oh, and maybe later I'll blog about why I've been so abssent from the blog this last week plus. I'd planned on blogin the events of the approaching party, but the last week has kicked my ass. (i really needed a good PJ party.)

-tony

Two More Days

Technically, a few hours less, but the Pajama (and sweats and scrubs) Party is almost here! WooHoo!!! Tomorrow night we're going to the Addies, the local celebration of advertising excellence. So, Friday night we get to be dressy and formal and on Saturday it's all about being comfortable. I've never been to the Addies before. I'm very excited about this whole process of being respectable and presentable and supportive in public. I suspect that this means no talking about scars or prescrotal urethrostomies. I wonder if axolotls are appropriate conversation?

Axolotls are these really amazing little Mexican salamanders. They are actually only from one particular lake in Mexico. They are neotenic so they never actually leave the water and retain these beautifully feathery gills. They seem to be appearing in my journals more frequently. There is a breeding colony at Indiana University. How cool is that? One place on the planet that breeds in captivity critters that are only from one very specific place on the planet! And they're really, really cute little critters. One of my mentors in vet school had one and he was just adorable. Axolotls should be appropriate conversation anywhere.

Somewhere, Mom is thinking that she really should not have bothered with the etiquette classes when I was in junior high.

Axolotls, pajamas, friends - life is good.

Jammies!

Tony was going to do this, but he's slacking on blog duty ...

This weekend is our annual pajama party! We love pajamas, many of our bestest friends live far away and sleep over anyhow, so we decided to open the house and couches to all of our friends near and far. However, they have to wear pajamas. The house is still messy, but we have purchased snacks and "adult beverages". Tony has a brand new set of pajamas and I'm just waiting for mine to arrive (not that the footies in the picture aren't cute and comfy). Even better, we are going to be joined by many of our out-of-town friends: Megan and Guy, Jess and her sweetie Anthony, Carrie and James and the lovely duo of Bridgitt and Jen who have chosen to leave their husbands behind. Hopefully the in town people will all choose to be part of the fun!

OK Tony, time to quit slacking.

Scars

After I finished cyberwhining last night I kept thinking about scars and took a scar inventory. Strictly physical scars, mind you. I don't have a problem with people who choose to reduce or fade their scars, but I think that the folks at Abreva may be cheating people out of some fond memories. So, chronologically (as best as I can remember): 1. I have a smallpox vaccine scar on my left shoulder. When I was a child I spent 2 hours a day at the pool in the summer. The scar would not tan, so I would have a bright starburst area against my skin. I thought that this was pretty cool. 2. I got my ears pierced when I was in the first grade. One day while I was wearing very thick, heart-shaped studs my friend Jeff gave me a hug. The back of the right stud got caught in his sweater and the stud lodged in the hole in my ear. Mom got it out while I was sleeping, but only my left ear was pierced until the seventh grade. My right earlobe still has a very faint, heart -shaped scar. I thought that this was rather cool, too (and still do). 3. When I was 10 or 11 I decided that my cat, Beauty, needed a bath. She handled the bathing part very well, but did not care for the blowdrying. I have a scar roughly the shape of a grain of rice on my right breast that is the result of this adventure. This was not at all cool at the time, but it's my scar and it doesn't bug Tony. 4. At about the same age I wanted to play with my friend Lynn's kitten (not my excellent college friend Lynn, a different Lynn). Lynn's German Shepherd had other ideas and so there is a very tiny scar above my upper lip. That one just hurt and scared me.
I actually have several other scars, from moles removed, various youthful tree-climbing scrapes, Dad's goose, the seagull, a guinea pig and a pair of plastic ice skates, but there really are too many to go into detail about. My point is that I wouldn't feel like myself without most of my scars. Actaully, I wonder what other scars I'll pick up as life draws a map on my skin. I don't have any on my belly, but maybe a caesarian section will change that. My feet are relatively unscathed, but I like to walk around barefoot. I'm OK with scars, internal and external. At least the wounds have healed. By the way, yesterdays scratches are already starting to close.

Ouch!

Small(ish) creatures have sharp nails. When I left for work this morning i had 3 scratches that were about 90% healed. By 12:30 I was bleeding from my right index knuckle, my left thumb region and my left index finger. Even nice macaws have sharp toenails. The bandages made it until 2:00 and then by around 3:30 I had several more scratches across the back of my left hand. Cute, bald, energetic ferrets that do not want their blood drawn also have sharp nails. Sadly, I never did get blood from the ferret and University of Tennesee probably won't want mine. Happily, I could whine and get lots of sympathy except that Tony knows it's really no big deal. He's right. I'm perversely proud of the scar I have from Dad's goose and ashamed that my only Wildlife ward scar is from a seagull. Macaw scar, now that sounds respectable!

Peanut Gallery: Commence

Though there are fewer than half a dozen people who currently know about this blog (soon to change), Comment posting is now available to all. Mock away.

Post-Holiday Feast

This weekend we trekked to Ann Arbor for our annual (post) holiday get-together with friends Megan and Guy. Because I am lazy, I cross-reference you to Megan's blog -- http://toaster.albertelli.com:85/weblog/ -- for an explaination of our happy tradition. Her blog also contains the wonderfully absurd breakfast hat. Worth a peak for your daily allowance of giggles.

At this year's weekend feast, we learned the following things:

1. Tasty ribs + tasty baked beans + tasty coleslaw + tasty orange and chocolate soufle + tasty red wine by Tony's standards, thought not anyone else's + more tasty ribs = worst morning breath ever.

2. Sushi is not for Tony. More specifically, Sushi most generally requires seaweed, which is not for Tony. Sushi makers also seem overly fond of cucumbers and avacado, which doesn't help.

3. The Internet is for Porn. (This is (I believe the title of) a song from the musical production (the name of which I believe is) "Avenue Q". Hilarious at first, this song bores right into your skull and remains hilarious, though annoyingly so.

4. Forget steamy temptresses - the real threat for a man to leave the bed of his wife is a down-filled couch.

5. Guy likes burning stuff. (In this case, not the food, but the 10 DVDs we came home with).

6. Guy won the weekend. (As he observed upon noting that he won every game we played - 3 rounds of Blokus, 1 round of Rumis, (both of which I highly recommend), and 1 round of One False Step for Mankind (which I recommend if you possess a long gaming attention span).

-Tony