By all accounts....

... a successful birthday outing. In list form:

• wine
• good food
• good friends
  
• discussion aplenty: deconstructing catesianism, artificially distressed wood, Jane Austen, Pinky and the Brain, 8-point Bucks, fish empathy or lack thereof, french versus american oak.... etc, etc, etc.
• The Game of Life
• vodka

Well done, players.