Send in the clones...

I'm back everybody! It's been quite week...Most of it was involved prepping for my birthday party last Saturday. This year, marked the return of a theme to my birthday party and this year it was "Match Game!" Though there was interesting wrinkle this year. And no, it wasn't the presence of an actual working Star Wheel...Ted and Jeff concocted a little birthday prank that I would never though of in a million years!

You see...in the original plan for the party, I had asked people to dress up as a B-list (or lower) celebrity. Jeff had told Ted that he was thinking of dressing up as me as I appeared on "Match Game" in 1998. This sparked a light bulb in Ted's brain and the two of them formed the elaborate scheme of having all of my guests come to the part dressed as me, with each representing a different aspect of me. That scheme worked. All but a handful of people who showed up came dressed as me in various forms. For instance, Ted and Larry pilfered some clothes in my closet with Jeopardy-esque T-shirts with answers that had the question "Who is Mandel?" Christie showed up as "Fast Food" Mandel complete with a McDonald's bag in hand. Jon R. dressed up as "Bad Pun" Mandel wearing a "Dell" T-shirt. Jeff came as "Comedy Jail" Mandel wearing an orange penitentiary shirt. Keith showed up as me in a Price is Right T-shirt complete with a bottle of fuzzy navel (one of many favorite girlie drinks of mine) in his hand. And the list goes on and on...

Oh, and we played "Match Game" all night. We went through about eight games and almost everybody played as either a contestant or panelist. Combine that with the open bar, and you can see where the night went. It was one of the most fun nights I've had with my friends. So many funny answers. When I get the nerve to look back at the carnage on tape, I'll put up some of the best answers of the night.

On the downside, nobody seemed to be able to win the Super Match. Two people conked out on the Audienc Match and one person after another couldn't conquer the might head-to-head. Keith and Graham played the final championship match of the night and Keith came out victorious in the final head-to-head.

Needless to say, I was quite happy with how Saturday turned out. It reaffirmed what wonderful, witty, funny friends I have. If you're reading this guys, thank you! Thanks for getting February off to a good start!

There will be pics of the party up here by the end of the week

Rest of the weekend was great...Sunday night, Ted, Larry, Tony, and I discovered a wonderful new restaurant in Toluca Lake. It's called Sebastians. It's located on Riverside near Mardi Gras and Bob's. Good food...good atmosphere...good service. The best part were the gourmet fries. They were a meal in themselves. Chili fries! Parmesan fries! Greek fries! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...They're just starting out, so if you live in the L.A. area, go visit them. HIGHLY recommend the place for lunch or dinner.