Communal deenar

Went to communal dinner tonight. Mike leaves tomorrow morning, so I'm not completely sure spending four hours socializing will help my stress levels over the next few days.

Christina made a wonderful cold pasta sauce, which was good on Chookie and Martha's homemade pasta. The house is getting really good at making pasta (the kitchen aid pasta maker attachment being key to the growing talent). Christina set the pasta theme, so I volunteered to make tiramisu. Having not made tiramisu in nearly eight years, my tiramisu making skills are, uh, rusty, and, well, a little disasterous.

That, and I haven't made tiramisu for more than 6 people before. The ingredients I recall using before appararently were a fad, disappearing from the grocery shelves as the fickle fashion of coffee drinkers changes. I couldn't find some of the espresso crystals I used before, so substituted instant coffee, which was much stronger than I realized.

Basically, if you didn't like coffee, this tiramisu sucked. I soaked the lady fingers much too long (out of practice, clearly), and didn't have enough cocoa flavor. A third of the tiramisu was left uneaten. Sigh.

Mirabelle was at dinner, dressed all cute and yellow like her mom (who is always cute, but only sometimes dressed yellow). Mirabelle was carded at the door, and produced her California issued ID card, which she had dressed up for in her Swedish best. The best part was that the ID had highlighted "21 in 2027".

Ugh.

2027.

And I'll remember today in 2027 and think, "Ugh. 2006."

Megan and I talked a bit about pins, and she said she was inspired. She mentioned the pin I had foisted upon her reminds her of me, so it's just like my pins (that I've kept). Whoo!

We talked about the 100 custom pins for $10, and thought it would be great fun for the communal dinner group to make them. So, Kris, Heather and I will be hosting dinner next week, with all sorts of paper stuff for pins. Fun!