Downtown is packed with attendees for a big gift show. My sources tell me it's about 75,000 people and easily one of the biggest draws of the year. The train certainly shows it. As does traffic. My favorite coffee place took in more money by 9:00 a.m. today than their best all-day total so far. And I tried one of their chocolate almond croissants this morning. One of the baristas is sleeping with the French guy who does their baking, so the croissants are really good. I hope they warn me if things start going sour.

I'm back to feeling playful and frisky again, and I'm really looking forward to getting out of town with Deb for three days. I just talked to her, and she said there's a replica of the Statue of Liberty in McRae, and oh my god, here's a picture of it. Oh, that's sad. And certainly worth a visit and some photos.

Deb's birthday celebration Wednesday night was great. Deb made chicken with a spicy chipotle sauce and an excellent Mexican soup that's a little too complex for me to describe. It had chicken broth, chilis, tomatoes, and greens in it, and it was served over a little pasta. The girls gave her a bunch of cool stuff, including a lot of beading supplies. Deb got a set of Powerpuff Girls dolls, too, and I'm really coveting the Mojo Jojo. I think he should ride with me in the MINI. The cr�me br�l�e turned out extremely well. Okay, the cr�me part turned out extremely well; the br�l�e took some experimenting. We tried brown sugar on top as the recipe suggested on Wednesday night, but the torch burned it before true caramelization occurred. Last night I tried powdered sugar, and that worked much much better.

We didn't go see "Frida" last night. We hung around at home and I watched "Mr. Deeds" (not brilliant, but enjoyable, and I laughed out loud many times) on DVD while Deb listened and beaded. Later we hit the hot tub and then bed.