5:05pm Was running late to Leanne's house because I had to get gas, but managed to make it there just a few minutes late. All we had to do was get the card signed and put together the remainder of her gift.

5:30pm Leanne put the finishing touches on the card. We had already gotten a call from Denise and her boyfriend telling us that they were running late and that they'd meet us at the restaurant.

5:35pm Leanne and I left her place to head over to Buca di Beppo in Pasadena. Again, I thought I'd be late but when we got there, it turned out that not enough of the party was there so we couldn't get seated.

6:42pm We got situated as soon as enough of the party arrived. Lina's roommate Shannon went around the table to take photos of all of the guests.

7:12pm It was a while before we got to order since so many people weren't there, so we just ordered some appetizers (three plates of garlic cheese bread mmmmm) and salad. The "special" salad had waaay too many rasins in it and cheese that looked like tofu. The mashed rasins looked like bacon bits. Overall? Too sweet. Oh yeah, and the Caesar tasted like fish.

8:23pm Lina and Shannon had brought lots of plastic beads for the girls (we all got at least two strands each) and plastic Michael Jackson-style fedoras for the guys. Check out the birthday girl with all of her bling bling!

8:23pm The area we were in was pretty crazy. There were lots of birthdays with huge groups of people, so everyone ended up singing and yelling and toasting each other. The table behind us was pretty rambunctious. You can see their birthday girl sitting behind our birthday girl.

8:28pm Shannon made a toast to Neener and everyone in the room (including the smaller tables and the old folks sitting behind us) raised their glasses.

8:51pm After cake, it was time for the birthday girl to get her drink on! Since she was technically still 20 (her birthday is on the 18th and we were celebrating it on the 17th) Alan went to go get her a drink. What did he get her? AMF!!!

8:55pm The old folks behind us were leaving, so their birthday boy and our birthday girl took a picture together. The dollar was from the guy. It was supposed to be Vegas money (teehee).

9:21pm After she finished the whole freakin' thing it was time for her to take a shot =0. Alan went to go get her a shot of tequila(!) with lime. He told me it was very smooth and that even though he's "not a drinker" (uh-huh) he was able to down a quadruple shot of it on his 21st birthday. Neener went for the lime immediately after downing the shot while the birthday girl sitting behind her (I think her name was Sepi) yelled "she doesn't need a lime!!!"

9:25pm A few minutes later the crazy group behind Lina left. They insisted on taking pictures with her too, so Sepi and some guy took a picture and the guy kissed her on the cheek. After that Sepi said "Hey, how come I don't get to give her a kiss???" so they took another picture. My stupid camera shoots too slowly when I use flash so I didn't get any of the action :(

9:51pm We headed over to Sushi Roku after leaving Buca's. A few of us somehow managed to get lost, so the rest of us waited outside and took pictures.

Leanne: Buddha's wet! Let's touch him!

Alan: (watching us take the photo) You're so not going to get to Nirvana

10:06pm The interior was really nice. We probably looked ridiculously out of place with our plastic hats and Mardi Gras beads. I kind of felt funny about taking flash photos but whatever. We stayed long enough to watch Lina drink a sake bomb and then Denise, Andy, Leanne and I left.

Drink total: 1 AMF, 1 shot tequila, 1 lemon drop, 2 sake bombs.

I saw her this morning. She said that she was still feeling the effects of the alcohol and that she had thrown up on the table some time after the second sake bomb. Not that I blame her. That was one helluva lot of alcohol.

I have yet to write about Hoho's 21st birthday. I need to prepare the photos, so that'll have to wait until later :)