Finally gathered enough people together to throw Mel a seriously belated birthday lunch. We made up a table for 12 (including Linc who made a special guest appearance), occupying the entire bank of tables along the side wall.

The prices at Friends have increased quite a bit. What helped is that with HP's membership privilege, we got a 1-for-1 deal for every Executive Set Lunch we ordered. For those less mathematically inclined, if we had ordered 12 sets, we would have only paid for 6.

For $29 something +++ per Exec Set, we got a soup du jour (the fates arranged that today's soup combined two of Mel's fave things: soup and broccoli); a choice of lasagna, hamburger steak or sea bass; dessert which turned out to be carrot cake; and a choice of hot beverage.