Turning 35 slowly. =)

Last year I had a big party for my birthday. This year as I am turning 35 I decided to have a more intimate gathering among close friends. I now lived in a larger apartment that has a dining and living room. I was celebrating with that in mind. Unfortunately I couldn't accommodate everyone at once. Although the apartment is bigger, the dining table could only sit up to 8 persons. Also I didn't have enough dishes and flatware and I wasn't about to ask people to bring their own (at least not anymore). I split it into two smaller parties. Brilliant. Two dinner parties. Two nights of fun.

First was on November 4th. This group are friends I've know before moving to NYC or soon after: Hyun (and Eugene), Lena, Eumi, Ben and Heidi. Min also came but she was from the second group. Min wasn't able to come the following weekend so I asked her to join this group. It was great fun. I served home-made lasagna with a side of salad.

Eugene baked and brought flourless chocolate cake with two kinds of chocolate syrup. Delicious!

The highlight was playing 80's Trivia. It just came out and I was excited to play. As expected I got my butt kicked by Eumi and Min. They played as a team only because I had no idea how much trivia Min knew. Curses! Heidi came in second. The rest of us...well, we need to know more stuff.

I got great gifts: Sophora/Bliss/B&H gift certificates and a special custom made "Paint the white out of the wood in your new apartment" kit from Ben. It even came with a lesson.



Lovely.
On to the next party...

November 11th I had my "Community Center" friends. They had me over to their places so many time I was finally happy to host them for a change. Nam, Linda, Winnie, Donna and Tomoko. Wynn didn't make it.

Since they have amazing Italian food when they visit friends in Staten Island, I wasn't going to attempt the lasagna with this bunch. So I went with "Shrimp and Sausage Gumbo." Delicious. It was good for a cold evening and as Nam put it, it had a kick.

We didn't get to the 80's Trivia but Nam pulled out my Taboo. It was so much fun. We were a little slow to start but towards the end we got the game down. Winnie who watched for most of the game decided to try it with everyone guessing. Damn that woman is good. I call her as my teammate for the next game.

Apparently my blog entry about Bliss made an impact cause this group got me a gift certificate to Bliss too. Cool. Don't worry I will spread it out so I can enjoy it throughly. Thanks!

Unforunately I forgot to take pictures. I guess we'll have to repeat the evening and document it. Hey any excuse to do that again.