Friends Bearing Gifts

So my pals Mark and Nina left this morning. We had such a fun time. On Saturday we had lunch with Mark's parents and a big group of his mom's sisters who were all in town to see "Chicago." That night a big group of my friends came out to help me entertain my visitors at The Cutting Room -- my first time there and what a great place. When "Rock Me Gently" by Andy Kim came on the jukebox (without my programming it), I knew I'd picked the right bar.

Not only did my friends insist on picking up the check wherever we went, they both came with fun gifts. Nina started things off with three boxes of Maurice Lenell cookies (a Chicago staple since 1937 and understandably so -- they're so good!). By the time she'd left I'd already eaten the entire box of chocolate chip and half the Madelines), so I had to bring the tin of assorted to work today in order to stop myself from obtaining a spare tire in less than 72 hours ...



Then she whipped out a copy of George Plimpton's "Truman Capote" on which the new film "Infamous" is based.

Plimpton edited the wonderful "Edie: An American Biography" (later reissued as "Edie: American Girl"), a book Nina and I were both obsessed with in high school after stumbling upon it in a bargain bin at the B. Dalton she worked at in Macomb Mall in Rosevill, Michigan, so she was drawn to his work on Truman. She tells me the Capote book is equally good -- chock full of that narrative-style writing that is perfect for this type of juicy biography.

Mark chose a slightly healthier option. Knowing my fondness for Myoplexes and Zone bars, he brought me two boxes of Power Crunch bars (one peanut butter and one cookies 'n' creme).

They are high protein snack bars that he tells me are the number one seller at his company. As promised, they really are delicious -- and would undoubtedly have a similar effect as Nina's cookies if I were left to my own devices with a gallon of milk in the house ...

Mark and Nina are not the picture-taking freaks that I am, but I hope to have a few in the coming weeks. More importantly, we had a great little reunion and I look forward to doing it again soon!