Hi! I'm 33 years old today! Hooray!

We celebrated most of the weekend, since today is a Monday and I have to work and Tim might have to work late tonight. Friday night we went to Jupiter's, where we had good food, good beer and fabulous atmosphere. Saturday morning, brunch at the Blackberry Bistro, where I had the "fuck it, it's my birthday weekend" orange scented vanilla challa french toast with strawberries. And, Saturday night, we completed the feasting portion with dinner at a fabulous restaurant called Cortez. Sort of like tapas (small plates), so we had six different entrees:

• Salad of baby lettuces, shaved pear & Manchego with roasted almond curry butter (amazingly fresh greens and the pear went fabulously with the Manchego cheese)
  
• "Today's Crudo"
  our freshest fish simply marinated (mind-blowing yellowtail!)
  
• Foie gras terrine with blood orange reduction, vanilla scented pineapple, tarragon-celery salad & toasted brioche (I'd never had foie gras before and thought I would only try a taste, but ate my share of it. As Tim put it, "It's like duck ice cream!", but it tasted much much better than that implies.)
  
• Prawns a la plancha with basque pimentos, lemon garlic butter & creamy crab rice (I don't like prawns, so I only had one, and ate all the delicious crab rice)
  
• Mustard crusted wild salmon with braised cardoons, sunchoke purée & pan roasted chiodini mushrooms (Very tasty!)
  
• Roasted organic chicken breast with pan roasted gnocchi, braised hen of the wood mushrooms, artichoke & saffron onion puree (Yummy, though I must admit I was fonder of the gnocchi than the chicken itself.)
  

And dessert...

• Sugar & spice beignets with Venezuelan chocolate fondue with a shot of House Made Vanilla-Milk Liqueur (Like little elephant ears with chocolate to dip in!)
  
• Warm chocolate peanut butter truffle cake with roasted banana ice cream & peanut praline (Decadently rich!)
  

And of course we drank...

• Mojito - Rum, fresh lime, fresh mint, sugar and soda, lime wheel (Best Mojito I've ever had.)
  
• The Elderflower -- Gloria Ferrer royal cuvee 1995 brut, d'arbo elderflower syrup, lemon twist (Tasted like a mimosa!)
  
• Viognier, Miner Family, “Simpson,” Ca, 2004 (Sweet and smooth -- a new favorite type of wine for me)

On Sunday we played some WoW and went to the mall where we bought a fancy new coffee maker (though hardly the fanciest, as we were at Williams-Sonoma in yuppietown) and saw Brokeback Mountain (which we both really enjoyed, even though I bawled). Then we headed up to Piedmont Springs, where we had the traditional birthday hot tub soak.

Tonight Holly and Aleister came over and we had chocolate cake and presents. Aleister was very into the cake and kindly offered to help me open my gifts. I got some good books, including a great Moosewood cookbook, and a lovely dusty rose blouse from my Mom. Thanks, Mom! It's just gorgeous.

Tim, in addition to driving me around and giving me the best experiential birthday weekend EVAR, also made me the sweetest, handmade, birthday card I've ever received, complete with an original Tim Pratt poem that only I get to read :-) I love it!

It was a lovely, indulgent birthday weekend, and I truly needed it. I feel refreshed and happy and ready to face being 33 years old.