My boss's boss had a house party after work tonight. Sheri picked me up at work and we drove there together. We were one of the first ones there and we stood around a huge (10 feet by 3 feet?) table in the middle of their kitchen and watched them prepare all of the food.

He is very Italian and most of the food for the evening was Italian. For sides they had a huge salad with a simple balsamic vinegar, oil, and sugar dressing. There was a huge bowl of very good mushroom risotto. The main course was fabulous homemade pizzas. He only made one of each kind so if there was one you particularly liked you had to grab fast. I got full before he stopped making pizzas though.

The first one he lightly brushed a par-baked pizza shell with melted garlic butter, and then layered it with sliced Roma tomatoes. Then he put a layer of fresh-off-the-stem basil leaves, and finally covered all of that with sliced fresh mozzarella.

He also had what looked like between a 5 and 10 pound brick of regular mozzarella that he grated as he needed it. It was some of the best mozzarella I have ever had. I need to ask him where he gets it.

I forget the combinations of the rest of the pizzas, but some of the ingredients were fresh chopped spinach, chicken, caramelized onions and peppers, gorgonzola cheese, artichoke hearts, fresh mushrooms, Italian sausage and prosciutto. I think I am missing at least a couple of ingredients but you get the idea of what kind of pizzas he was making.

He had a lot of good bottles of wine but I stayed with Diet Coke. Sheri had a couple glasses and I took sips.

He had a huge awesome dog that weighed 128 pounds. I never heard of the breed: a bouvier. Soft curly hair. Nice personality. Playful.


We got there at 5 PM and left at 7 PM. We stopped back at my work to pick up my car and then drove home. On the way home Sheri went through the 40 or so work pages she received while we were at the party. When we got home she immediately logged into work and dialed-in to the bridge call, and has been working ever since. It is almost 2 AM Saturday morning and it sounds like they are still going strong. I just made her some strong black coffee to keep her going. I am staying up so we are both on the same schedule for the weekend.

An hour or two ago her bosses' boss gave her an awesome compliment. He said "he hears nothing but good things" about her, and to please stick through this crazy time. He said after they hire two more people and stabilize the environment she won't have these marathon weeks and will only be on call every fourth week. Nice.

Not too many plans this weekend; Buckeyes game tomorrow and the Bears on Sunday. There is a good restaurant/bar at a local municipal golf course that has a sign out front that says they have a free buffet every time the Bears play. We are going to see what that is all about.

Someday? Soon? I have already downloaded the 200 page instruction manual and pretty much read it cover to cover.