Never a good idea.  The more of us, the less merry for everyone else.  And we love to travel in large groups.  As a result, dinner can be … challenging.

But I had a feeling that Yamato, the Japanese steakhouse on Galveston Island, might be the sort of place that could happily handle our collective appreciation for debauchery, cocktails, and seafood.

It all started out innocently enough.

Our group of about 20 took our seats and began discussing what to order, and who had been most/least entertaining at the conference earlier in the day.

But when the flat top was turned on and we were told to keep our hands away from it, our thin veneer of civility was cracked.  Honeydew, Jana, James, Jackie, and Penny immediately embarked on a contest to see who could hold their palm against the heat the longest.  Nevermind the fact, as Sober Sally pointed out, that our food was about to be prepared on this now rather unsanitary surface.

Kenny sampled the miso soup, and perfected his air pinkies.

And Dan showed us how catching shrimp tossed by the chef was done.

All in all, our debauchery level was steady at 6 on the 10 point scale.

Until someone got the bright idea to order a round of sake bombs.

If you’ve never had one, sake bombs are a demitasse cup of sake (Japanese rice wine) balanced on chopsticks over a rocks glass filled halfway with Sapporo (Japanese beer).  When taken in groups, everyone smacks their palms on table, causing the sake to fall into the Sapporo, and then everyone chugs it down.

By everyone, I am not including pregnant people, by the way.

Perfecto!

But of course, our group smacked the table with such ferocity that everything on the table, not just the sake cups, jumped.  I think only 2 glasses were broken as a result.

One of our favorite fearless leaders bore the brunt of this overzealousness without complaint.

And after dinner, we all hugged and promised to get together and harass other restaurant patrons at next year’s convention.  Miss y’all already, beekeepers.

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