Two Lessons Learned

1. If you accept staffing as the junior IP associate on a public merger that is scheduled to close in 5 days, you should expect to work straight through those 5 days, regardless of the silly "weekend" title.

2. If you have planned to make pumpkin gnocchi covered with elk-venison bolognese and you are late arriving home on the eve of your husband's birthday dinner due to issue #1, I suggest roasting the pumpkin at 400F for 35-40 minutes and slicing it on plates before covering it in bolognese. When push comes to shove, the time spent making the pasta by hand is the last 10% of the meal. It's the greatness. Don't get me wrong. It's the pinnacle. But when you are late enough, you have to accept that things have no possibility of reaching perfection in enough time to eat at a reasonable hour.

So the take home is that the meat sauce, that's 65-70% of the street cred right there. Don't skimp on the bolognese. Skimp on the vehicle for conveying bolognese. It will all be fine. Just open an extra bottle of wine.