Yes, it was inevitable. June 1st came and went, and with it, the passing of another anniversary of the Binkomonster CTO's birthday. Somehow though, the magic is diminished. We remember a time when the weeks before a birthday were counted down, anticipation growing, with the actual day itself feeling even better than Christmas. (Hey, Queen for a day, what could be better?)
Now, the celebration is marked by the quaffing of cocktails, enjoyment of good grub, phone calls from distant corners of the earth from all family members. It's nice. But it's also marred by the stress of work, dealing with deadlines instead of decisions on which tiara to wear. Catering to the screams of unruly and unreasonable customers instead of one's desires for a huge chocolate cake with billions of candles on it. Eh. Progress on some levels, regression on others.
All in all we can't complain. There was a Tiki party held over the weekend at the Binkomonster castle. Presents were distributed. And my what a FANTASTIC time was had. Binkomonster Inc is now the proud owner of a truly incredible collection of SHAG tiki mugs. Yippee! Hot shag, shag, shaggity shag. Josh Agle, if you ever stumble across this humble little blog and read it, please know that your art makes us so very happy. You just have no idea. (Smile).
Getting back to the party. Good eats (the usual cheese, prosciutto and nibbles were had). Lots of cocktails (the tropical, the classic, martini's of course, the experimental). We've drained our stock of white rum and Hangar One vodka (horrors, no!!!) as well as some other wonderful spirits...[um, gin? Nope, gin stock is ok]. The blender was going most of the afternoon and evening, joining the melodious sounds of the lounge music playing in the background. Party guests were joined by the Binkomonster staff (Binky, BooBoo, Wooby and Boingy), and it was just an all around relaxed day. A great way to spend a Sunday.
The remainder of the week was a balance between trying to put out 'real job' fires, and spending time at Absinthe (birthday evening dinner, 4 sensations, 1 aviator, 2 shots of vodka with oyster shooters, and a chocolate birthday mousse) [yow!], as well as trying new haunts. The Fifth Floor was given a spin. Rating? We give it three and a half paws. Not bad at all. The cocktails were great, but a limited menu of them. The food was fantastic (enough to draw us back). The main highlight of the week however was being able to go see the new Harry Potter movie (the Prisoner of Azkaban). Yippee! Funny that even almost 4 days later, we are still processing our internal review of the flick. Overall, we liked it. Cinematography was wonderful, casting (as usual) perfect (though our decision is still to be rendered on the new Dumbledore, not sure about Gambon yet), and it was just a fun ride all the way through. The Dementors ended up being rendered to screen as we had visualized in our overactive imagination (which is always a cool thing), but there were some drawbacks as well. Key pieces of the story not getting enough focus. Not enough backstory (assuming that the average viewer had, as we have, read the book like, oh 3 times over, and seared into memory every minute detail). Different treatment of some scenes (for instance, Harry meeting the Weasley's in London at the Leaky Cauldron). One can only accept that it will always be a difficult task to put a story such as this one to film as even in the span of 3 hours, there is only so much territory a film-maker can cover without negatively affecting how the story is told. So we are ok with this. And overall, the movie makes us happy. So much so that we are probably planning at least a few more outings to see it on the big screen (and of course, it will eventually join the DVD collection).
The remainder of the weekend was spent with a friend who is visiting from Boston, and included a foray up to Napa on Sunday. Mmmmmm. More wine. Beautiful weather. Finally made it to the Artesa Winery. Had no idea that the grounds were so amazingly beautiful. By far the best view of all the winery's visited thus far. The outdoor patio with steel tables/chairs and fountains are just top drawer. And the wine was surprisingly very tasty too! A pleasant surprise all around.
So now here we are again, into another work week, anxiously anticipating the coming weekend. Not for anything that is planned or on the calendar, just to be out, away from work, and doing other things.
So many castle projects beckon: the patio (in need of plant/pot consolidation/ scrubbing and some more greenery), the dining room (in need of craigslisting), the study (in need of serious cleaning), and ditto on the bedroom. All put on the list in no particular order.
Time to start writing that book.
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