July 26 - Erin, Paul, and Kendra

Erin and Paul are the most jet-setting people I know. They've spent their summer in Northern Ireland, South Africa, Pennsylvania, and who knows where else, but they managed to squeeze us in for dinner right before taking off to Sweden. Erin is a 3rd-year student in my department at Emory, and Paul is her husband. They are also our regular weekly trivia buddies, and such fun people to hang around. I am additionally certain that Paul is the only person in the world to have both graduated from Oxford, and held a job as a carnival worker (a.k.a., "carnie"). Go ahead and try to find someone else... I don't think it's possible!

So, what did we have for dinner? Well, Erin and Paul were supposed to come last night, but the plans were changed kinda last minute (I won't go into that here...). I decided to offer the same fare, however, that they would have had if it weren't for an unforeseen event, so tonight's offerings don't match the menu. Erin and Paul additionally are both vegetarians, so I omitted whatever meat that was originally on the menu. Kendra was back in town for work, but I decided that us carnivores could take the night off. So we had cherry ginger salad; five-spice fried rice; and spring rolls. I had never made spring rolls before, and I was a little nervous about it. Despite the fact that I can't really roll them as tightly as they should be done, I think they turned out well. I will probably offer them at this year's holiday party as well since they really aren't that difficult. The beverage selection for the evening was the Chinese beer Tsing Tao. Erin and Paul have recently decided to abstain from alcohol, so I also got them Kaliber, the non-alcoholic beer made by Guinness. Dessert was a delicious chocolate cake made by Alon's (http://www.alons.com), an award winning bakery here in Atlanta.

After dinner we played a couple of quick games of Scene It!, and chatted about our plans for the rest of the summer. We had a great time, and for those of you out there who like bar trivia, please feel free to join us on Sunday nights at 8:30 at The Highlander off of Monroe in midtown, near Peidmont Park (http://www.thehighlanderatlanta.com). We need all the help we can get!