you know it's been a good day if you've been drinking since noon

That's what happened on Saturday. I had brunch with some old coworkers at Browns Restaurant. Started off with a yummy Don't Get Caught martini (raspberry vodka, alize red, citrus and cranberry juice) along with my Hollywood burger and onion rings. It was a farewell brunch as Lenka is moving to Amsterdam to start a new, exciting life to follow her dreams and maybe one day, after much extensive training and education, become a yoga teacher.

After brunch, we wandered the streets of downtown to do some window shopping before stopping at Starbucks to chat with a new friend over caffeine. A phone call and a quick cab ride later, and the alcohol was flowing on the "party" bus (no booze allowed?!) where I had the pleasure of knocking back a vile concoction of disgusting white Jamaica rum mixed with Coca Cola. It burned. And my lips peeled. Very attractive. We spent 2 hours on the "party" bus, making a few stops for those who needed to use the bathroom (at Stanley Park by the Totem Poles and somewhere by Granville Island, close to the marina). All the windows were opened (that was the air conditioning) and we spent half the trip, shivering and drinking the rum and coke, not because of the taste, but in the hopes of it warming us up.

Finally, we reached our last stop and hopped off the party bus in Yaletown (back again!). Since we still had quite a bit of time before dinner, we stopped by Section [3] for have some real alcohol. A Fake ID cocktail brought my taste buds back to life and a plate of yam fries didn't hurt either and than it was off to the Hamilton Street Grill for dinner. For my appy, I had the crispy Asian spiced beef tenderloin, organic greens, chow mien noodles, ginger soy dressing. It tasted a lot like dried ginger beef that you would find at any Chinese kiosk at the food court. It was decent, but I was expecting a bit more than just fishing through the crispy noodles, looking for pieces of beef tenderloin. I had the oven-roasted B.C. Sablefish, house cured prosciutto and woodland mushroom risotto, buerre blanc as my entree, which was much better, although for the life of me, I couldn't find the proscuitto. It was around this time, where I was starting to get full and I ended up passing along my plate of half eaten sablefish and risotto down to one of the boys who was more than happy to finish it for me. I did manage a few bites of dessert (warm gingerbread pudding with caramel sauce, pumpkin and ginger gelato), which was really delicious and a very generous portion, but I couldn't finish it without getting sick. Next weekend: Glowbal!