dinner w/drinking friends

Since you threw it out there for public response, I'm guessing you wanted a consensus. I agree with most of the guys here. Seperate check. done deal.

I assume that it was obvious to everyone that you ate practically nothing and drank nothing.  When the bill splitting discussion started, I probably would have said, "I'm kicking in twenty bucks; you pigs can split the balance any way you want."     OK, depending on how well I knew the guys I might have used "alcoholics" in the place of "pigs".  Or maybe "gentlemen".  Anyway, you get the general idea. Mike