drscott | Eric's Birthday dinner

I haven't posted about our trip to Houston because

excessor did such a good job here.

One odd event during our trip: when we were renting the car, I handed over my license to the agent and she pointed out it had expired in July. What?!! I remembered paying for the renewal and thought I remembered getting the new one in the mail, and exchanging it for the old in my wallet. I've looked everywhere and no sign of the license (or the packet of papers that come with it, which I usually would file with my other auto-related paperwork) has turned up, so I have an appointment at the DMV this afternoon for a replacement. I've been driving for four months on an expired license....

Last night we drove to Willow Glen (a pleasant older neighborhood of San Jose just south of downtown) for Eric Tooley's birthday party. Eric's partner Rusty put it together via email at the last minute, inviting a variety of Eric's friends from Chorus, ECR, and other places to join them for dinner at Aqui, a nouveau Mexican place.

Eric moved here from Portland a few years ago to be with Rusty; they got married last year and Rusty took Eric's last name, which was a bit confusing but allows me to refer to them as The Tooleys. This has just the right connotation of sex toy use and (for MIT people, at least) studiousness, since Rusty is a school librarian and Eric is no slouch in the word department himself.

excessor/Paul first met Rusty when they were ECR students, and helped Eric find a temp job in documentation at TheBigNetworkingCompanyWhichShallNotBeNamed; Paul and Eric often had dinner together before ECR class night, but since Paul and I moved in together that no longer happens, and Paul misses Eric's charming company. So it was nice to see them having fun together.

Eric has unaccountably chosen to keep a journal at MSN (ick!). He's been blue lately about missing friends in Portland and the usual holiday ambivalence. It was fun helping cheer him up.