Long post.

Saturday night Stan and I went to Masa with Jesse and Sarah. The first downside was when they encouraged us to hang up our coats. The coat hooks we could see were packed with coats, and the only one open was broken. It was only after we mentioned this that the hostess said, "Oh, there's more on the other side of the wall."

When we got over there, we saw the coat hooks were behind a table of diners. We were going to skip it, but they said it was fine, that they would just "be going through our pockets and even checking the liner." Gee, that made us feel so much better.

Then we got a sticky, dirty menu. Isn't this a D'Amico chain? Should this really be happening at a 4 star restaurant?

The food and drinks were good but not excellent. For appetizers we got the guacamole and the sopes surditos. The sopes were excellent but we make better guac. Stan and I split an unremarkable chicken enchilada with black beans on the side. Jesse's Puerco Veracruzana (pork) was much better. The sangria drinks Sarah and Stan ordered were also excellent. Jesse and I had the Masa and the American Margaritas. The first was watery and the second had way too much lime.

Two more downsides were that the bathroom was almost out of toilet paper and completely out of paper towels. Then we got the wrong bill from our server. Not huge problems, but ones that should not occur at a restaurant like Masa. If you are going out for a fine dining experience, I would skip it and head down the street to Azia. Everything there, from the food to the service is flawless.

Afterwards, we saw the craziest Xmas house ever at 35th Street and 23rd Avenues in Minneapolis. All of the inflatable holiday decorations ever invented converged on this yard for your viewing (dis)pleasure. There were at least 20, if not 30. It is the definition of crazy and definitely worth the drive.

We wrapped up the night playing Trivial Pursuit and Apples to Apples at the Chatterbox Pub in Saint Paul. We had fries with "cheese sauce" and chocolate fondue with literally a thimble full of chocolate. They use quality ingredients at the Chatterbox, which is impressive, but doesn't work when you have to mix water with cheddar cheese to make it smooth, which is exactly what they did.

I added three tall Strongbows to my two margaritas, but with the week I had, my companions were fortunate that I didn't just set up camp under the tap. Literally, I am still so overwhelmed by my therapy session last Thursday that I simply would not have cared.

Although I did care, because I like Sarah and don't want to show her the entire freak show that is Lisa quite yet. I may have missed the mark though, after my comment to Jesse about not paying any rent yet. Yup, there it is, the part of me that made his X cry. Although he will be getting an apology when he gets home. I at least know when I've been a bitch now. And that, as they say, is the first step towards . . . something.