ah friday, you've come back to me! i thought i would never see you again but i was wrong, i should've never doubted your return. and just the way i remembered you, full of weekend promise, happy, carefree, a well deserved reunion after a hard week's worth of work. despite the fact that kristine and dana were out of the office today (james was our lone designer, he wasn't teased in any way), we went out to celebrate alex's birthday during lunch.

we went to pho pasteur on the outskirt of the theatre district, the same place we went to when katrinka had her birthday lunch a few months ago. adam was the limiting factor but alex was able to talk him into coming. pho pasteur is a well established vietnamese franchise in the boston area (there's one where i live in harvard square). i personally think their menu selection is rather limited, but they do offer a nice ambience, and i've been a patron on many occasions. this particular pho pasteur featured small glass fish bowls suspended over the bar. the last time we came there were colorful japanese fighting fish swimming in them, but the bowls were suspiciously empty today. carly ordered first, just to insure they had tofu, which they did not the last time we came. we ordered appetizers and i got myself a glass of iced green tea and a bowl of hot and sour soup with tomatoes, pineapples, and chicken slices. i've never had it before, and i thought it'd be like pho, but the soup was actually served with a bowl of rice, which i mixed together to form a porridge. it had the makings of tom yum guy, but the pineapples made it too sweet for my taste. there was a big debate as to whether or not the spring rolls contained shrimps, in which case adam wouldn't be able to eat them without suffering some allergic reactions. after we all finished eating, the waitress came around and left the check next to james since he was the most smartly dressed individual at the table, figuring he'd probably be the one footing the bill. instead, birthday boy paid for our meal.

alex, katrinka

james

adam

carly

adam and i were the last two people in the office as evening came around. we started talking about the german cannibalism case and somehow went surfing the web for photos of amputee fetishists. when i came home, i reheated the leftover linguine from last night and also ate the chocolate cake renata bought me last sunday from her parents' party. good cake it was and i'm normally not a big cake person. i watched some history channel (german tiger tanks of WWII), followed up on some political commentary on the web as well on the news, listened to some music.

i'm going to go take a bath and call it a night, really just an excuse to read the latest issue of entertainment weekly. i look forward to sleep, trying to wake up early tomorrow so i can go out for a run, get some fresh air, this body is aching for activity.