Friday after work I ran in the snow, had a delicious supper with friends (and ate most of ‘s martini olives), then swooped over to Alastair’s with my best Nigella Lawson impersonation at the ready to help create his signature nutrition-free whipped-cream-chocolate-wafer log as a break from reading about Hobbes. I got a chance to “play” (read: lie on the ground next to and hug) Sirus, who has now reached the ripe old age of three and a half, and is a lot more sedate than he was as a puppy.

Afterwards, I headed north to welcome home J&J and return their house keys. I also claimed the first of my two fantastic “thank you for catsitting” gifts – a Tiki Goddess – which is even now staring at me, judging me, wondering why I’m not drinking more rum, from above the computer. Dr. Q brought me an Isaac Hayes compilation CD back from her conference with the ‘Shaft’ theme on it; she knows me so well. I concluded the evening by watching ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ while noshing on a falafel from Sarah’s and a mouthwatering block of one of my favorite Arabic desserts, pistachio halva. Fantastic.

The evening reached a perfect conclusion with a midnight e-mail from Brett, upgrading his offer of brunch the next morning to “a complete day of Brett” including one (1) home-cooked gourmet dinner and a chance to be his date to the dress rehearsal of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtensk. I am a lucky girl. Yes, , I saw you onstage last night! That blood-spattered pinafore was S-E-X-Y!

More on the opera later, but for now I need to go run 7k and finish the last three chapters of ‘a complicated kindness’ before bookclub.