12th Night quickie

(And yes, I chose that header deliberately.)
I have a huge amount of work to do for a department presentation tomorrow and Wednesday, so I'll post some of the basics while I remember them and restaurant reviews later.

callistotoni's Laurel 20th anniversary party was fun. She was in the room below us but we didn't hear the raucous party - Friday night is tough for parties. Saturday was the usual rush around doing things all day; I had the exchequer meeting for an hour and a half, then ran lines, then did the play.

The play... wasn't our best production, but it was far from our worst. I'd rate it at slightly-below-adequate, with adjustments for wufmew heroically stepping into a role with two days to go. (She did really, really well!)

The wife won the Golden Poppy competition for the year and was named Arts Champion. Go her!

We bailed on the Duchess' ball and ended up hosting the GSP and others Saturday night in our room. Since callistotoni was feeling poorly we absconded with her keg of cyser. (There's still half left, but we'll take it to the cast party this weekend before giving it back.) The room get-together was mellow, unlike last year - but then, we weren't hosting an open party this year. I was amused when Her Maj stopped by and we all stood up; the deer-in-the-headlights look as she realized we were all at attention for her was priceless. Props to her for going to 45 minutes of the exchequers' meeting, by the way. That's above-and-beyond devotion.

We ended up talking with Kevin and Patrice for a long time and kicked them out around 2 AM. Too little sleep later, we packed up and went to brunch with lots of people. Really good place, but that's another post. The drive home was uneventful and I wish I could have taken today off to unpack, do dishes and shopping and the like, but instead I need to get back to work.

What I'm reading: Pierce Askegren, Exit Strategy

Hey roswtr!

This is for you. Or maybe it was you.

Goin' out for Twelfth Night

Saturday night, the wife and I went to Tresetti in downtown Modesto at mad_duchess' recommendation. I rolled the dice and made 7:30 reservations, counting on court to end early enough - it was scheduled to end at 5 PM. Naive and overly hopeful, yes... but in fact, by getting out of there just as soon as court ended we got there right on time.

In contrast to the previous night's dinner, this absolutely hit the spot. Blues music played in the background, and the decor was sort of "upscale wine shop". We had an appetizer of five-spice duck wraps - faboo - and the wife had a decent seafood risotto. I had lamb breast which was just right for the mood I was in.

Lots of other LJers came in, including mad_duchess, as we were winding down. I hope their dinner was as good as ours.

On the way back we investigated the other dinner place that she had suggested: Galletto. It looked nice, so we decided to hit it for Sunday brunch. We mentioned it to a few people - and it mushroomed into a party of 14 by the time we wanted to leave (they opened at 10 AM). callistotoni was waiting for a porter and cart and I hit the wall on needing food, so most of us walked over and waited while they reconfigured the tables. farmount was already there and waiting cheerily.

The building is a former bank (they kept the vault visible) and it's a nice, cheery atmosphere. The wait for our food was a bit long given that there weren't many other customers, but we had lots of good people at the table for chattage and the servers stayed friendly and kept refilling our coffee and water. So it was all good. I was tempted by the smoked salmon pizza but decided I was in more of a breakfast mood and had their seafood omelet. The wife was good and had oatmeal and fruit. (Their oatmeal was even tasty.)

Both places were about 2 1/2 blocks away and well worth it for getting offsite and eating well. Sunday brunch was an excellent way to round out the event before the drive home. I'd go back to either quite happily.