This week on Canal Confessions, Shazia and Alex take you through a Friday night out that started with a pizza at Ribalta, moved on to ice cream at Mixue, and then turned into a sidequest for a Jellycat Half Moon Cookie plushie. Shazia loves her plushies, and no one was going to stand between her and this cookie.

Then Alex tells the story of two women from Arkansas he met with his partner, and how he tried (with a level of subtlety we will let you judge) to get them to listen to this very podcast. Spoiler: if you're one of them, hi, and please subscribe.

Next comes the ultimate friendship test. The hosts guess which white sauce the other loves most, and the friendship survives. Barely. They also answer the NYT question about what they're most grateful for, which gets a little heartfelt before it gets back to talking about sauces.

Then the big dreams come out. If they won the lottery, Alex is buying a watch, a very classy one. Shazia is buying a villa in Tuscany so Andrea Bocelli can be her neighbor. Whether he knows about this plan is unclear. And if they could rule a kingdom, what time period and where would it be? Somewhere between a royal decree and a snack order, the hosts decide their thrones.

Plus a few other tangents, because it wouldn't be Canal Confessions without them.