The Beautiful Young Man took me to a very nice party last night. It was an excuse to dress up a bit (short skirt, close-fitting sweater, long sparkly earrings, high heels), visit with some fun, quirky art and its creator, and chat with various folks on topics ranging from kayaking mishaps to chemistry careers to working in New York's garment industry (and coming home smelling of curry) and catching trout for breakfast.

The food was incredible - neither the hostess nor her daughter are career caterers, but they could certainly give the pros a run for their money. A partial list:

glogg; fruit tea; assorted beers and wines

macarons - dark chocolate, lemon, grapefruit-pistachio, and I think a couple others

fruitcake

"not-ella"-decorated pastry puffs

avocado-dill deviled eggs

roasted chickpeas

some sort of spicy hummus

tuna salad with creme fraiche on endive leaves

miniature savory tarts with pomegranate seeds

mushroom-shaped meringues dusted with cocoa powder

Today's been far less festive but no less blessed - so far, I've reviewed the galley for a poem that's going up tomorrow at Strange Horizons, skimmed the Sunday NYT, set a bowl of red beans to soak (I'm in the mood for steamed buns), answered a handful of e-mails, and learned a bit about the science of boiling an egg. My plans for the rest of the day are mainly to heat up some dumplings, make progress on some stories and spreadsheets, and to devote at least twenty minutes to working out. There might be an episode of Batman in there as well, but it's checking off the other stuff that will let me get a good night's sleep, so first things first.