Thursday wasn't just another day in the life of CQ CEO Bob Merry whose departure from his home of 22 years is imminent, it was party central.

Part One: Cocktail reception on the rooftop of The Hay Adams with colleagues Mike Riley, Bruce Drake, Ken Sands and Loesje Troglia.

As happens at these events, the tributes were plentiful, but the crowd favorite was from Victoria Monroe of the advertising department. "Actually, I'm very glad Bob could join us tonight. He initially said he couldn't make it because he was going to be hiking the Appalachian Trail... Before speaking tonight I had two thoughts. First, how do you toast a charismatic, popular, visionary and successful leader? And, second, I am so glad that that is not at all relevant tonight."

And, "Bob, we were hoping to get President Obama to call in and wish you well. We requested just 5 minutes of the President's time, but the White House said he couldn't do it. But Joe Biden did say he'd be glad to call in for about 3 hours," Monroe went on.

Part Two: Dinner with friends and colleagues at Teatro Goldoni hosted by publicist Janet Donovan, who is also a publicist for CQ.

That portion of the evening was "off the record," but we managed to snag this one photo from them. In attendance: Al Hunt, Jeff Stein, Craig Crawford, Mort Kondracke, Myra McPherson, David Rapp, Bruce Drake, Margaret Warner, Keith White, Jerome Cramer, and Judy Woodruff.