tonight we had mandy's farewell celebration at the
b-side lounge on hampshire street in cambridge, about a 15 minute walk from the office. the turnout wasn't tremendous, perhaps partly due to the fact that we held it on a friday night, but for those were there, it was a pretty interesting time. the trip to the lounge was pretty interesting, with carrie "zero road rage" donohue behind the wheels of her SUV style jeep, and everybody else crammed into the empty seats, with amy sitting on mandy's lap at shotgun. we sat at a circular lounging table in the corner of bar/restaurant, with just enough seats to fit all of us. for appetizers, we ordered some mussels, some fried calamaris, and some bruschetta. i devoured most of the mussels (is it wrong to love shellfish?). topics of conversation included my taste in movies (
bring it on is a good movie!), laurie's root canals, and travel destinations. mandy revealed to us that she was actually in a thai soap opera (as an extra) when she visited thailand. amanda surprised ed some more with her encyclopediac knowledge of alcoholic beverages and stories of said products consumption.
amanda & carrie |
carrie & amy |
ed |
carrie was the first to leave, then ed left to meet his wife at another bar. when christine showed up (a most auspicious occasion, since she doesn't work on fridays, so she had to make an extra effort to come out and join us), we ordered another round of drinks and entered the second half of the evening, when the lounge really started to fill up with people. the place is kind of swanky, catering to the uppity young urban types. reminds me of the good life, without the swingers mentality or lounge acts (at least not that i saw).
for desert we ordered two fondue pots. now i have never had fondue before, so it was an entirely new experience for me. let's just say it left me very full of chocolate sauce and when i came home the first thing i did was to brush my teeth. for those who've never had it before (like me, before tonight), it's basically a bowl of melted chocolate heated by a candle, surrounded by an assortment of treats that you're suppose to dip into the warm chocolate sauce through the use of these prong utensils. for dipping, we had figs, strawberries, bananas, pound cake, blueberries, and toffee.
we were there until 9pm, when the waitress pretty much had to come to us and tell us that there's been an one hour wait for our table. taking that as our cue to exit, we did, and everyone (sans christine, who drove) walked to the t stop. the double amandas went inbound to boston, while amy and i went outboard.