Milestones

1. Thanksgiving - We had a great Thanksgiving. Really great. Which is especially notable because my Thanksgivings have been cursed in the past few years (left at a rest stop as the greyhound bus drives away with my luggage and wallet or throwing my back out only to hobble to the airport and still not get a seat on a flight and then spend the holiday with a lean cuisine).

Well this year we made it to Cincinnati to my Aunt Karen and Uncle Dave's house. We loaded up the Fit, picked up my Dad, and had great roadtrip weather the whole way there. We arrived on Thursday afternoon and left early on Saturday morning, but that gave us plenty of time to enjoy my Aunt Karen's incredible cooking (and her world famous filling), watch a few movies (remind me to never recommend the movie again), put up the Christmas tree (at 1 am), and generally enjoy each other's company.

2. 10 year high school reunion - The Saturday after Thanksgiving was my 10 year high school reunion. I wasn't too excited about it but convinced myself to go based on the prediction that I'd regret missing it. It wasn't miserable, but I could certainly go another ten years before doing it again. There were a few people it was really nice to see, but most of my time was spent with Erika, Sara, Kristy, and Amber - which we didn't really need a reunion to do. The best part was getting to let jb in on a bit of my pre-jb life.

3. Meet Riley - On Tuesday we went over to Jay and Kendra's house for dinner for the first time since Riley was born. (Muffy and N8 - curiosity satisfied) Riley is positively adorable and Jay and Kendra seem really happy. I'm so freakin glad they live in Pittsburgh.

4. Reunion debrief - On Wednesday Erika, Sara, Kristy and I met for dinner to talk about the reunion. I think we were all basically in the same boat as far as being glad we went, but not itching to do it again. It's so nuts that we've been friends for over a decade. Rik and I met in 5th grade - so that's closer to two decades. Geez oh man.

4. Hoi Polloi turns 1 yr - Yesterday was Hoi Polloi's 1 year anniversary. The milestone makes us somewhate retrospective. In some ways things are going really well - we have great regulars that seem to like us, we were voted best vegetarian cuisine in the PPG, we've gotten some good write ups including the City Paper, and generally we still like doing it. On the other hand, it is a recession and we can't help but think about how different our financial situation would be without the business and how unfair it is that jb works so hard and doesn't have too much to show for it at the end of the month. I wish there was an easy way to tell if we are where we are supposed to be at this point or if we are missing the mark. Either way, 1 year is something to proud of.