With friends like these...

Lunched with my lovely ARC pals, Bootsie and Muffy, which aren't their real names, but in an effort to maintain some anonymity for them it's what I decided to call them here in Blogland. You can determine for yourself which one is Bootsie and which one is Muffy, and let me know what you think. It doesn't matter, really. You could even name them whatever you want for all I care.

We went to Nobu's, which is an excellent sushi joint in an old IHOP. Top notch sushi, and Nobu himself greets you with a smile from behind the sushi bar as you enter. Bootsie and Muffy and I have been eating there regularly for some months, and we always have a blast.

The most recent conversation included these topics:

• Things to do around the Lou that haven't been done before.
• How many shakes/malts one person could feasibly consume at Crown Candy Kitchen in one hour.
• Crayola crayons and color differences between lavender and periwinkle, whether or not we like Burnt Sienna, and how we were cheated with the metallics, because even though silver, gold and copper all look really cool as crayons, they don't actually draw those colors, and are clumpy to boot.
• Various gnat control devices and services.
• How boring Washington, Missouri is.
• How boring Hannibal is, or is not, depending on who you are. And how you're a literary shitwit if you haven't read Mark Twain. That's for you, Bootsie.
• The merits of working at a spa versus a not-for-profit.
• The smell of Play-Doh, and whether it was smart for Hasbro to release a perfume, Eau d'Play Doh, in honor of its anniversary. The debate: does Play-Doh smell like salt? And what does salt smell like, really? Play-Doh, of course.
• How much things change and how much they stay the same.
• The carrying of ones in (apparently) complicated mathmatical addition problems. Do you need to "manually" carry the one, or can you "do it in your head?" All three of us need to manually carry the one, as was evidenced by the 20+ minutes it took for us to divide the bill appropriately. By the end of our endeavor, two napkins and three paper chopstick sleeves had fallen prey to our numerical scribblings and bibblings, and various writing instruments lay in disarray around the table. We were exhausted and forced to return to our respective workplaces for some mental relaxation.

Because I'm an active blogger now, and have an "excuse" to make images, I dragged the Big Dog Camera with the Mac Daddy Lens to Nobu's and got some shots of my buds. Of course, they gave me nine kinds of hell over the size of my gear, but isn't that what friends are for? In return, I'm posting these flattering shots of Bootsie.

I love you guys!