Dom Perignon and Swiss Army Cake

Our wonderful group of college friends from Plymouth, IN and environs (most of us attended Purdue University--stoke 'em Boilers) threw a going-away party for us on Saturday evening (that's party #2 so far if you're counting). After fleeing our own residence moments prior to Saturday afternoon's open house, we drove the two hours from Chicago to Plymouth to stay with friends David and Brenda.

Among other diversions, they own a bar in Plymouth (one of two bars, thus giving them 50% market share) called The Dandelion that Brenda manages, also thereby receiving "trade discounts" on booze. She craftily acquired some bottles of Dom Perignon champagne over the years, one as a gift to Steph and me for our 10 year wedding anniversary and another for a previous anniversary of hers and David's. Well, we spoiled ourselves and finally popped them open in fine style that evening, accompanied by various stinky cheeses and smoked salmon and duck pate. The 1998 bottle was phenomenal and the 1996 even better!

Half loopy already, we progressed to the restaurant to meet other excellent friends Zeus & Sarah, Mike & Krysta, Mel & Eric and Dave & Chris who had reserved a separate room with catered food; staying in theme, we started drinking the champagne of beers (Budweiser products). Zeus (not his birthname) and Sarah presented us with an awesome cake, made by their wedding cake designer in Indy, in the form of a bright red Swiss army knife. "Auf Wiedersehen Todd & Steph" was inscribed on top and the whole thing was so nice that, combined with the champagne effect, I almost lost my emotional cool for the first time. Luckily I managed to restict my response to a moment of damp eyes and tight throat, not an outright breakdown. Whew!

After dinner we proceeded to the previously mentioned bar to continue imbibing Budweiser products and to jam with the more-spirit-than-talent local grunge/heavy metal cover band. After the live entertainment, we returned to David and Brenda's house to complete our usual ritual of afterbar stereo jukebox DJ'ing contest until nobody can stand up straight, then someone finally notices it's 4:30am and we pass out.

Reviving ourselves at a leisurely 2pm (that's Eastern time, so really only 1pm for us), we spent some time with adorable baby Toren, who had just returned home, before heading back to Chi-town to meet friends Sandy and David for a fancy dinner Sunday night. Leaving the country is tough work.