Tom is out of town and Tom cannot eat wheat. So Anne and Peter invited me over for a gluten fest this evening. We didn't have spaghetti. We had a gigantic Arizmendi pizza. With shitake mushrooms and peppers and basil added by Anne. Oh God, but the crust. Wheat! It was nothing like Amy's frozen gluten-free rice crust.
We began with some piano. They have a big black grand piano in their living room. I had brought over some Sofia sparkling wine, but last time we began with that Peter had a hard time playing the piano. So this time, we waited to open the bottle until Peter had played a few numbers. He began with Satie. Carmen picked up her squeaky toy and jumped up with Anne and me on the couch and squeaked along with Peter. He went on to some jazz and ended again with "It Had to Be You."
Then we poured the sparkling wine, and looked at a painting Anne had just had framed. It was a painting of her parents flying across the country to visit her. New York was on the right, and San Francisco was on the left. Her parents' suitcases were flying across the sky, and their black dog was waiting for them back in NY. I showed some animation I had just finished.
The only bad thing that happened was when Anne brought out this GREAT BELT by Joan & David that was too big for her. She always has something to offer me that is too big for her. I love it that she always has something to offer me that is too big for her. But this time, I tried it and was deeply disappointed to find that even though it was too big for her, it was still 6 or 7 inches too short for me. Peter then had to demonstrate how the belt fit him.
We talked about the show at the de Young--Anne went on and on about it. (Birth of Impressionism.) I had been bored and tired-out by it, but to her it was something else entirely. She had ridden her bike over and seen it today for the fourth time.
When the pizza came out, they asked how big a piece I wanted. I said I wanted a quarter of the pizza. They both said, "ALL RIGHT!" and smiled really big. I thought this was a strange response, so I asked how big a piece they were having. Peter quickly explained, "We just have different eating habits from you, that's all." I noticed they each took an eighth of the pizza instead of a quarter and wondered if that had anything to do with my belt problem.
For dessert we had homemade green tea ice cream with double dark chocolate brownies from Arizmendi.
Maybe tomorrow I'll have some spaghetti before I pick Tom up at the airport. But for now, Good Night.
a glutinous pizza
