Party
A few weeks ago, Dan’s friend Rod (from the RC aircraft field) invited us to his 50th birthday party. Of course we wanted to attend, but our introverted natures felt quite nervous about it. What if we wore the wrong thing? What if we said the wrong thing? What if we felt so uncomfortable that we had to hide in a corner all night?
Well, the party was last night at a great little restaurant in Fallbrook — the Cafe des Artistes. We got there about 5 minutes early so we wandered around the attached art gallery for little while until things were set up. Rod had hired a magician to entertain everyone during the “cheese and wine” hour before the dinner was served. The magician, John Carney (what a great surname), came up to us and did several close-up card tricks, very amazing and entertaining. There was also a two-man band playing sort of uninteresting generic party-music, but the lead guitar player was astounding. He was this old guy, maybe in his 60s, and his guitar (and violin) skill was unbelievable. Dan and I found a spot to sit down and just watched him in awe while everyone else was mingling, heheh :)
Then after about an hour we all went in the dining room and found our place cards at the small tables. Dan and I sat with a fellow named Caesar and his wife, a VERY nice couple. Caesar is an RC airplane flyer who wants to get into RC helicopters but doesn’t have the time or inclination to build them. Dan loves to build RC helicopters but doesn’t have anywhere close enough to fly. So the two of them had a lot to talk about! Oh, and the magician was at our table too :)
The food was good — started with a creamed cauliflower soup, which was absolutely delicious, and then a green salad with really tender organic lettuce and a yummy dressing. I could have eaten that soup and salad all night. Then I had veggie lasagna, which could have used a lot more seasoning, and Dan had Chicken Marsala which he says was great. Then there was dessert — flourless chocolate cake, and little squares of lemon cheesecake, and chocolate truffles. YUM.
Then the magician did a show for us in the dining room, which was wonderful, and then everyone went back out into the main room for dancing. Dan and I sat and ogled the guitar player and his 1964 Strat for a while and then we said goodnight and headed home. We both had a really lovely time and are very proud of ourselves for overcoming our introversion. Go Team Venture!
Oh, and the restaurant uses Fiestaware, which I found very very interesting because I’ve daydreamed about replacing our nasty old dishes with Fiestware for years, but I’d never seen any in person. It’s lovely! They used an assortment of colors, which was charming.