I went to the office holiday party yesterday and got to wear my sparkly new earrings and necklace and red lipstick. It's fun to dress up! There were so many lovely things there:

- sprouts and goat cheese wrapped in beef carpaccio
- oysters with lemon and mignonette (also there were clams and mussels)
- shrimp with cocktail sauce
- grilled calamari
- five-spice chicken
- endive (dark red radicchio) with parmesan cheese
- rare skirt steak with broad beans on a bed of romesco sauce
- bruschetta with grilled red pepper and a smear of green sauce (pesto?)
- rather sandy scallops with dabs of orange, green, and white sauces, and a potato wedge
- toast with a salmon salad smeared on top
- chocolate and vanilla pots de creme
- chocolate crinkle cookies
- pineapple with coconut and mint shavings
- sauvignon blanc
- "dark and stormy": dark rum with ginger ale
- "ruby and sapphire": bombay sapphire gin with pomegranate molasses and fresh lime
and I'm sure I'm forgetting things!

I need to remember to try reading some Jack Gilbert.

Today I walked to the beach (four-hour walk from the Sunset--about six miles total) with Sam, and we ate at Hanabi in the lower Haight (veg gyoza, veg tempura, grilled mushrooms/broccoli/carrots, rice, miso soup, salad, pickles), and saw Jen read her hilarious jr. high diary at the Make-Out Room at 22nd and Mission:
http://www.getmortified.com
and saw Suzie and Ronda and Jennifer's brother Andrew and friend Liz, and Ronda gave me this link to her visit to French Laundry:
http://weblog.drymartini.org/
which I'll have to read later.