Saturday night was Jon’s birthday party. I made the chicken liver pate, which now appears to be my “thing,” and focaccia with salt and rosemary. (While the focaccia is baking, wash some rosemary springs and take off a bunch of the leaves. When you go to turn the focaccia after fifteen minutes, sprinkle the rosemary over the top. Bake another eight minutes as directed.) Jon made guacamole and pizzas. Ryan made basil-lime spritzers, mulled wine, and a kick-ass carrot cake. It was SO GOOD.

On Sunday, I went to the White Elephant Preview Sale in Oakland with Ryan and Sara. We bought some excellent things. I got an small, extremely fine-mesh sieve (25¢) , a knife block (50¢), a nicely-turned clay cup that I think I’m going to keep chopsticks in (50¢), the second volume of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking ($10, there were copies for $8 and $6, but it’s a first edition and in quite nice condition), The Best Recipe by Cook’s Illustrated ($10), a 1975 edition of The Joy of Cooking ($4), and a copy of The French Chef (50¢), a recipe book from Julia Child’s first television series. Ryan got a couple of copper molds (a fish and a lobster, she uses them as wall decorations), a clay roaster, a circular marble slab, a magnet, and some books (my brain has stopped there with its remembering). Sara got a lot of fabric for her crazy schemes, Phyllis Diller’s Housekeeping Hints, some frightening Nativities, and a religious plate that makes Jesus look, well, unfortunate. (Sara showed it to me and I asked, “Is Jesus making a booty call?” She then decided she had to have it.) Again, my brain has quit on the list. Anyway, an excellent time was had by all.

I was reading through the Going Bridal Confessions this morning, and came across a woman who described her future husband as “so laid back he’s almost comatoast.” Mm, comatoast. I wonder if that’s a coma induced by eating too much toast, or a spontaneous coma brought on by a piece of really excellent toast, or the kind of toast they feed through your IV when you’re in a coma. So many possibilities!