Oh, half-liter mug of hot chocolate, what would I do without you?

I'm still trying to figure out what to do tonight; I have options, but all of them involve at least a half hour of driving and I'm feeling unmotivated.

The entire day at work was full of miscommunication — it probably cost us an hour of productivity on some relatively urgent projects — and now I see that a comment thread on one of my other blogs has gone the same route... once again. Pretty hard not to be troubled by that sort of thing when one of your goals in life is to help people express themselves clearly. (Really.)

What I really should be worried about is my lack of mixers. And whether or not I should bring an appetizer. Really, how could anyone who has a bottle of Sailor Jerry in the liquor cabinet — and what's more, gets to shave his head tonight — not be excited? New Year's Eve! Et cetera!

Yesterday Jenna and I went out to Maple Grove for Nick's b-day celebration: a showing of Sweeney Todd (surprisingly good) and a birthday dinner at Benihana.

I only knew Benihana from a second-hand slogan on The Simpsons ("where dinner is the show"), so I was dreading some singing-waitress nightmare... but no, it's one of those places where the chefs cook the meal at your table.

Our chef was — at least relative to the others — not very good. He kept dropping stuff and saying "too much tequila." But it was still entertaining, and I got to try my first tuna steak and my first cranberry mojito. Delicious, and something I would never have done otherwise.

I don't know if it was the seafood or what, but I woke up this morning from an epic blockbuster of a dream — something involving time travel. It was one of those dreams where you try to fall asleep again just so you can see how it ends.