Friday night was crazy, but everything ended up working out just fine. I had intended to go out with my friend Phil, but just as he and I were heading out he got a call from another friend of ours from high school, Steve. Steve and his wife MargEva are good friends with Laura and Jonathan (whom I also know through the Duke Talent Identification Program, where Jonathan was an instructor and I was a resident advisor in 1990). Since Jonathan’s step mom is affiliated with Duke, they often end up with basketball tickets, so Steve was calling Phil to ask him if he’d like to meet up with the rest of them (MargEva and Laura) to go to the ACC Tournament. Phil kindly said “oh no no, I’m going out with Gina,” but right after he hung up I told him not to be rediculous, that this was the ACC Tournament and fer-cryin’-out-loud he should go already. So he called Steve back, and Steve came over to Phil’s house to fetch him (bonus for me, since I hadn’t seen Steve in a while either).

Meanwhile back at the ranch — I’d gotten a call earlier in the day from my friend Elizabeth, whom I’ve known since I worked for her at The Limited during summers in college. She’d wondered what I was up to that evening, but at the time, I already had the Phil-related plans. So, after I talked Phil into taking the b-ball tix, I called Elizabeth back and ended up meeting her for a late dinner at a Japanese steak house, which was wonderful. It had been far too long since we’d seen each other, and it was great catching up.

See, I told you it all worked out.

Saturday night was all about fun! First, Meghan came over to Jeff’s house, where I presented her with her birthday presents: a little japanese siilly toy I’d bought for her at Giant Robot last time I was in San Fran; a 50’s style apron I’d sewn for her out of two pink and cream prints (must get photos!); and a necklace I’d made of thin leather cord, amazonite (I think?) and various shades of blue glass beads, which for once, I didn’t match exactly (as painful as that was for me), since Meghan’s not into matchy-matchy things.

Then we went out to Rockfish (mmmm! fish & chips!) for her birthday. We also got in a wee bit of QST (Quality Shopping Time) at Nordstrom’s, where Meghan scored not one, but two!, nifty belts. (Aside: that’s one whole area of fashion that I completely miss out on. I *never* wear belts!).

After dinner (eaten completely without poundage guilt over the fish-and–chips, I might add…it was that kind of evening), Meghan and I headed over to our friend John Santa’s house for his monthly music jam. John is a music producer and knows *tons* of pickers and players and singers… and once a month he gets a crowd of them together to just play.

John had been worried about a small turn-out, and had even considered cancelling, but we ended up full-to-overflowing! We even had four singers, which was incredibly fun. Virginia and Ruth have very strong lead voices, so Meghan and I harmonized on most things. (Meghan’s also got a fantastic lead voice, but she was not feeling up to it Saturday night). Ruth also brought a lot of new tunes to the party, and Meghan and I had a blast singing two of our favorite Tift Merritt songs, Trouble Over Meand Virginia, No One Can Warn You. And though this is a song I’m not particularly fond of, the four part harmony on To Know Him is To Love Him was amazing.

Didn’t get home ’till 1:30. Slept like the proverbial log. I got up, watched a bit of the barbeque show on PBS, got showered went to meet Steve (see paragraph 1, above) and his darling daughter Eleanor for lunch Sunday morning (ok, it was still Sunday morning to me). This was the first time I’d met Eleanor & she’s a real charmer.

After I got home, Jeff and I toook the bike out for a long spin since it was such a pretty day, ending up at Maple View Farm Creamery for ice cream. Poifect! It was pretty amusing to me, as it was 4:30 on a Sunday afternoon and the place was packed! I’d have thougt that all the parental units would have said “no, you’ll spoil your dinner”, but there was a line wrapping all the way around the inside of the place. I had cookie dough and butter pecan, and I did, I admit, spoil my dinner a wee bit. Jeff and I ended up makign soft tacos at about 8, when we finally were a bit hungry again. Iron Chef and Whose Line and bed followed.