Her Birthday from Her POV

Well, Dan gave you the basic rundown of what he did for my birthday - it was amazing! Not only did we spend the whole day eating (but not overeating - which was impressive) but he planned out a really detail heavy experience. Considering that I'm most often the planner/details oriented/organized one of the two of us, I was happy to not have to do so for a day. Anyway, Dan mentioned the list of the 100 best things to eat in SF. The list can be found here if you really want to read it. Before my birthday food extravaganza, we had had 10 of the items already (#2, 6, 35, 40, 46, 49, 53, 63, 74 and 97 if you really care). The list hangs on our fridge, and I occasionally look at it, but it's not what we focus our trips to the city on. Besides, I have a long enough list of restaurants I'd like to try all around the Bay Area that list doesn't need to be any longer, thankyouverymuch.

Anyway, the morning of my birthday, we left the apartment about 50 minutes late, me already stressing out about ruining all the timing of Dan's elaborate plan. Seriously, all the way into the city I was worrying about it, and Dan was totally fine, of course. I felt better when we got to our first stop for brunch and we got seated after only a couple of minutes.

Brunch: Buckwheat crepes and French cider at Ti Couz (#88)

This is an amazing creperie in the heart of the Mission, that serves all sorts of sweet and savory crepes. I was a little hesitant to get a savory crepe, because most of the crepe places I've been, they use the same crepe recipe for both types of crepe, which really confuses my mouth. Eating eggs and whatever else rolled up in a thin, sweet pancake is weird - I don't like sweet and savory all at one time. Happily, their menu talked about the different types of crepes they make, so we ordered one of each - sausage, tomato, cheese (savory) and pear, chocolate nibs, and brown sugar (sweet). Also, they make AMAZING cocktails. The bloody marys the bartender was making were epic, and I had a Ti Couz cocktail which included blackberry puree, champagne and vodka. If you come visit us, we will probably bring you here.

After we left, we walked maybe five blocks until we hit our next stop, which was a bakery that has sort of a cult following in SF, and I'd actually been wanting to try it for awhile, so Dan already was doing really well.

Morning snack: Morning Bun at Tartine Bakery (#8)

The place was completely packed, which was to be expected for a Sunday at brunch time. Before we left that morning, Dan had told me that at one of the places, he was probably going to have to limit me to just a couple of choices and this was the place. I have no willpower in bakeries. I want to try everything! But, this time, knowing we would be eating more, I refrained from getting the bread pudding, or the croissants, or the everything else and settled for what we came for...and a couple of macaroons (they're little!) The morning buns are incredibly soft and flaky without tasting like straight butter, even though I know they use plenty, and then they top them with an orange flavored glaze. Droooool.

We walked a block over to Dolores Park to eat our pastry and generally people watch. It was a beautiful day and there was lots of SF "uniqueness" to watch. Afterwards, we hopped on bus and went North to...a bar. Confusion.

Pre-dinner cocktail: A Fernet at R Bar (#71)

I think the first time I read this on the list, I assumed it was a mixed drink. Wrong. It's actually just a shot of a type of liquor, fernet, which I had never heard of. And you probably haven't either, but it's an Italian liquor that for some reason, is super popular in SF. This particular bar, which is just your average non-descript bar, apparently pours about 25% of SF's total consumption of it! It tastes...completely different from everything else I've ever had. And I fail at words to describe it really, but a few days later, I saw this Boston Globe article on Fernet, which is a good quick read. The bartender told us a lot about it, and served it to us with a ginger ale chaser, and told us to just throw the first shot back to see if we liked it. Tasty! We each had two and then headed on, almost ready for dinner. This picture below isn't of the booze, because we didn't take one, but just of some of the bottles the bar goes through every month.

We walked another few blocks, and ended up outside what looked like a small, family run Thai restaurant. Dan told me he planned to order an item here to go, and then we could take it near where we would be eating dinner and eat it as an appetizer. Good planning.

Appetizer: Papaya salad with salty crab from Sai Jai Thai (#27)

Ok, when he told me what he was ordering, I was psyched. I love love love papaya salad, and I love crab. How could this possibly go wrong? Knowing that I like spicy, but simply can't usually handle it, Dan even ordered it medium spicy so I could enjoy it. And this is where things went wrong. We took the salad down to the waterfront, opened it up and...my eyes watered from smelling it. I had one bite, basically started crying from the spice and couldn't eat anymore. Dan had maybe 3 bites, and then had to go beg for water from a nearby restaurant, who totally turned him down. Seriously, I tasted spice anytime I coughed for the next half hour. We think we may try again, after telling them NO spice because I bet it is really good. (We did bring it home and Dan tried again a couple of days later...he got through half and then drank all the milk we had and 4 glasses of water)

So, Dan told me then that we had to get to our dinner reservation at 5:30, but that we had to hurry through because we had to be somewhere else at 7. I was starting to worry about getting way too full...but I shouldn't have worried.

Dinner: Shaking Beef from the Slanted Door (#7)

This restaurant is in the Ferry Building, right on the water by the Bay Bridge. It has been on my list of restaurants to try for a long time, and is currently one of the "places to go" in SF. Dan apparently had to call a few times and talk them into giving us a reservation, since they were all booked up, but he managed and we got one for right when they opened for dinner. We had a few different dishes but the highlights were the ones in the picture below - squash rice cakes and shaking beef. The squash was pureed, combined with rice, fried, covered with fresh coconut. Could have had them for dessert. The shaking beef was a beef and vegetables dish, in lime sauce with rice. Yummo.

So, because we had gotten there early, we were out of the restaurant in plenty of time, and we started walking a few blocks to wherever we had to be at 7 PM. Like I said, I was thinking we were off to eat still more, but I was wrong.

Dessert: "The Bathing Ritual"

Dan had found this awhile before my birthday and shown it to me, but I never thought we'd actually go do it. Basically, the spa is on the top floor of a hotel, and they have huge tubs that are outdoors on a balcony. There is plenty of cover, if you choose to undress to get in, but when you're in the tub, you can see the sky above you. The tubs are Infinity tubs, so you can completely fill them, and water just spills over the side, and refill on their own (like Infinity pools). oh. my. gawd. They are amazing. See picture in previous post.

Happy Birthday to me.

Day of birth.

It's my Dad's birthday! I would say wish him a Happy Birthday on Facebook, but he doesn't log into his account (boo). So, maybe in the comments?

Las Vegas, part deux

So, we went to Vegas earlier this month. I, for one, am not a HUGE fan of Vegas. I think it has it's benefits - there are some sights to be seen there that can't be found anywhere else. There is amazing food, and amazing shows and people acting like complete fools, who have 120% bought into the concept of "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" (except you're taking PICTURES you asshat. clearly, you will have evidence of this tomorrow...argh.) Anyway, I don't love the too-much. It's too much every-single-damn-thing. Too many lights, too loud music, too expensive, too much cigarette smoke, you get my drift. So, I really appreciate the parts of Vegas that I like. I really don't spend much time doing the other things, especially since Dan has been more than once now and we don't have to wander through the hotels looking at all the gimmicks. Because what is Vegas really except bright, flashy gimmicks? But, Dan got a free hotel stay through some company that wanted us to sit through a timeshare presentation (and what fun that was!) so we went for Dan's birthday because, hey! Two nights for free. Vegas on the cheap. When we arrived, we pulled into our ridiculously cheesy hotel (which, I for one, was expecting. It's free. It's not the Bellagio) which had horrible themed murals and props and the lobby smelled like an ashtray. Dan was pretty horrified. But, honestly, when we got to the room, I was more than OK with it. It was clean, non smoking, had a nice bed, big windows. But hideous looking, no? What did we do...the aforementioned timeshare presentation, Burger Bar at Mandalay Bay (GO if you like burgers. yum.), the Bodies exhibit which now lives at the Luxor, sushi at the Bellagio, "O" for Dan's birthday present (he loved it), lots of lion watching at the MGM, wandering around the Palazzo because I hadn't been in it yet, dancing fountain watching, and plenty of people watching (and laughing at. in all honesty.) Inside the Palazzo (attached to the Venetian) shops, which was decked out for Lunar New Year Kitty! One of the new adventures this time around, we took a taxi to "downtown" Vegas, which is where all the old-timey casinos are, which was really fun. They have all the old school style buffets and neon that you see in movies and TV shows. But, for like 10 years, 5 entire blocks of Fremont Street has been covered with a canopy style LED screen (the world's largest) that plays every hour at night. The night we were there, 11 pm was an omage to Kiss. It's actually pretty loud and awkward, since you're staring straight up. But, the visual effect of it is pretty cool. And, all the area under the screen is closed to traffic and has lots of street performers and other good times. I actually enjoyed wandering through the casinos more down there than on the Strip - we watch people play, but don't usually gamble. I watch roulette, and Dan watches Hold 'Em. Her leg used to kick, but when they put the screen in, they turned the movement off. So, that was Vegas 2009. Except, we already have plans to go back in June, because we found a SWEET deal offering rooms at Mandalay Bay, my favorite Vegas hotel, for cheap. The plan is some shows, some laying by the pool and some Bellagio fountains for just two nights. Anyone want to join??

November, one day at a time

Well, it's already the second weekend of November, and I haven't told you all thank you so much for my birthday wishes yet, which is not cool of me. So, THANK YOU! I feel very loved and appreciated. Thanks for the cards, Facebook notes, phone calls, flowers, emails, etc. You are all awesome. A lot of people have asked what we did for my birthday. So... November 1... Hooray for birthdays! We woke up actually later than planned - we had wanted to go to brunch at my favorite place, and by the time we got down there (in the pouring rain) and realized how long the wait would be, Dan realized that I would be late for my birthday present, which was a 90 minute massage! So, we ate birthday lunch at Baja Fresh (fancy, I know) and then headed to the spa...in the pouring rain. Dan had booked a deep tissue massage for me, because of the class I had taken that week, which was great but it was intense. When I left, Dan wasn't back yet, but the ladies at the spa were sure to tell me that my husband would be back soon to pick me up. A little weird. That night we set out for a night out in SF because we had tickets to a Matt Nathanson concert at the Warfield, which is this incredibly historic venue in downtown SF (the locals call it the Tenderloin district. Could there be a more unappealing name for a location?) Anyway, we went to one of our favorite local places for dinner (Burmese!) and then headed across the bay, still in the pouring rain. Luckily, we got to the Warfield in plenty of time, and the concert was GREAT. If you've never heard of him, you should check him out. He's in the Jason Mraz/John Mayer sort of vein. Anyway, he put on a great show, and is a really funny guy, so the in between song bits were good times. November 2... Another day, another concert. We saw Jason Mraz at the Greek Theater (on campus venue, where I went to see Dave Matthews) - it was a weekend full of skinny white guys playing guitars really. The concert strangely started at 3pm, which was especially weird on the same day as Daylight Savings. Anyhow, he's also great live. He was a little too happy, the world is made of sunshine and unicorns, every little thing is gonna be alright for this sarcastic heart though. BUT, I really appreciated that live, he really sounds like he does on his album, which is important to me. November 3... Good things! My staff had broken into my office over the weekend and decorated - all week I was tripping over the balloons that were all over the floor. They were all really proud of themselves, coming by to make sure that I liked it. Also, I left the office early, because I had to get home to watch Monday Night Football. (Early, because that crap starts at 5 pm here. Which is ridiculous). Anyway, I know Redskins fans know the outcome of the game, but I just wanted to reiterate that the Steelers were victorious. And I was happy about it. November 4... So, I'm not sure if I really need to state the fact that the candidate I voted for won the presidential race, or the fact that he won in quite an impressive fashion, or the fact that I am SO HAPPY ABOUT IT. Yeah, I didn't think so. Election day was interesting here - I was still at work at like, 4 pm, when they started announcing that some of the East Coast states were either going red or blue. The polls had barely closed in California before they called the whole election - it was crazy. Students basically rushed out of the buildings and had a celebration in the courtyard, complete with cheering, chanting "Yes we can" and all out screaming. Luckily, they left the unit, but only to join the cheering MOB that took over all of downtown Berkeley and the whole campus. It was pretty intense apparently. There are pictures all over CNN and Facebook. Also - VIRGINIA? OHIO? I am SO proud!!! I couldn't believe it. What a time to be a proud Northern Virginia Democrat. I didn't do any of the rejoicing and running about, which I'm now regretting. I wish I had taken the time to celebrate, because all of my exhiliration was basically completely sucked out when I clicked over on cnn.com to check on the ballot measures and saw that it was likely that Prop 8 was going to pass in California. In case you've been living under a rock, Prop 8 is the measure that banned gay marriage in California. It ended up actually passing 52% to 46%. I was and still am shocked and completely appalled. I didn't realize how much I was emotionally invested in the measure until it passed...and now, I just don't even know what to say. Of course though, I am thrilled to have contributed to the historic moment of Obama getting elected. November 5... Moping still about Prop 8. November 6... Tech beat Maryland on Thursday night. Fear the turtle my ass. November 7... I actually missed the Prop 8 march in San Francisco on Friday night, because I had to teach my class. But, on the up side, class went really well, and I think a lot of them are really starting to make some progress, which is of course what's really important. November 8... Wow, a lot of good football today. Most of the games didn't end up the way I would have liked, but good games. Penn State, loser. LSU (who I was rooting for after the PSU loss), loser. Cal, loser - which is fine, because they couldn't catch a pass to save their lives. And wow, penalties much? In other news, I'm on my second to last book for the year - I'm actually reading the Diary of Anne Frank for the first time ever, and having some trouble getting into it. I find myself forgetting while I'm reading that she was a real person, in this REAL situation. Crazy. Any suggestions for the 50th book? Also, my grandparents (mom's parents) just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on Friday. I have a hard time wrapping my brain around the concept of sixty years. Six decades! They are pretty awesome. I updated you all on the status of my grandmother actually, and I wanted to say thanks for the warm thoughts - she will be going into surgery to remove a tumor, but she is in very high spirits, her doctors are positive and the prognosis is good. So, we will keep hoping for things to go well! Saw my first Christmas themed commercial yesterday. Ugh. The rain has started here almost every day, which means winter is actually here. Between that and the sun going down so GD early, I'm kind of depressed about the weather and out of doors. I hope everyone is staying warm! **Update: So, I was reading through my old posts today and realized that I'm a total hypocrite. When it was March, and Daylight Savings Time went the other way, I was all "Woo Daylight Savings! Extra daylight is the best thing ever!" and now...where's the loyalty? *shakes head sadly*

I fully believe that I am cursed.

Yes, I am back safely in California after a wonderful visit to the East Coast. Why yes, my flight home was awful and got me to San Francisco almost 3 hours late, why do you ask? It just makes me tired to think about. And thankful that the next time I will be on a plane probably won't be until October. My dad and I sat through about 45 minutes of traffic to get me to BWI in the first place, but he got me there on time, even a little early, as he always does. I had time to check in, and grab some dinner and as I was eating, I could see down to my gate. As I start looking closer, I see this man who clearly is upset, harassing and yelling at the gate attendants. (Yeah, the one place you don't yell at people is at airports or on airplanes. Wow, what a quick way to get arrested.) Eventually, some security shows up and they take the guy down the jetway toward the plane, and close the door behind them. Shortly, two lovely police officers show up and join the party. The gate attendant then comes out and tells everyone that the flight is going to be delayed until "the situation is handled." (Translation: Until this crazy man is off the plane.) so after about 10 minutes, the door opens, crazy man is escorted out by police officers, and we finally board. I find out from the flight attendant that the flight started in NY and on the way he created a ruckus, they kicked him off in Baltimore. And he wan't pleased. His brother dd go ahead and stay on the pkane though, which made me laugh. SO, we're already delayed for about 20 minutes, but all seems well - the flight is really smooth, I did the entire "difficult" crossword puzzle, etc. We have to make a stop in Phoenix. Phoenix has thunderstorms and 50 mph winds. We circle. For 45 minues. We eventually land (right before we got diverted to Tucson which would have made me hurt myself) and then we sit. For another hour. Thankfully, there were only about 30 people on the plane, so everyone had their own ow to lay down. Ugh I was tired when I got in, as it felt like about 5 in the morning to me on East Coast time. Seriously, even though both of my flights were awful and the stuff of nightmares, it was really nice to be back in DC and to see everyone. My mom and I went up to Johnstown for Fourth of July weekend to hang out with my grandparents, who my mom and my aunts think are "slowing down." But, seriously, my grandfather is 83 and he still works out at a gym a few times a week, and is active in the Knights of Columbus and carves and...I don't know what to say about that. I mean, he's obviously slower now than when he (and they!) were younger, but seems like he's doing pretty darn well to me. The last time I saw my grandparents was at Christmas when my entire family was at the Sheep Farm, so it was nice to be there when only my mom and I were there. It's much quieter. We all spent some time on the Fourth hanging out and eating (really, what else do you do for the 4th of July?), celebrating my aunt Debi's birthday, and then the next day we also all remembered my uncle Bill, who passed away two years ago July 6th. It was...sad, obviously. (I bet you all would have inferred that if I hasn't said anything) Also, fun fact: We stayed at a hotel where the desk clerk mentioned that Barack Obama and his entire staff had stayed a couple of months ago during a stop. Who knew that candidates came to Johnstown? (It didn't do any good with my grandparents. Staunch Democrats, but they're voting for McCain. *sigh*) I do start to miss Reston everytime I go back. But, as I was discussing with Brian, I think it would be different if everytime I went back no one was there. Do I really miss the place or the people? This time, Jess was there, being all engaged and such, Brian was home visiting (for his birthday!), Missy and Franklin were obviously there, my mom, my dad, my aunt/uncle/cousins, etc. So I don't know. I had a great time enteraining myself during the day (which mostly entailed going to coffeeshops I really like that had free WiFi) and then meeting people at night to do fun things. Franklin, Brian and I saw "Wanted" one night. WOW was it bad. Funny thing is, Dan actually refused to see it with me. This is odd for a few reasons. 1) Angelina Jolie. 2) He LOVES bad movies. Movies that you think are going to be horrible, Dan gets psyched up for. He can't help it. 3) Angelina Jolie. I wanted to go because the premise seemed fun - get messages from the future about who is bad bad bad and assassins kill them in the present to prevent the future badness. I think as a concept, that has potential. However, they kind of sort of completely squashed it and just made it horrible. I haven't seen a bad movie in the theater in a while (I try to avoid them, as it's friggin expensive to see movies these days) but this one wins the prize. I think the last one I saw that falls into this category was "Crank" with Jason Statham (the guy in the Transporter movies) who I swear can NOT make a good movie. Anyway, Crank was also horrible. Annnnnd I'm rambling. OH but there was a preview for the Batman movie, which creeped me out (the whole Heath Ledger thing). So yes, it was lovely to visit, but I'm home again with Dan and the kitties. While today is the 12th, I will be postponing 12 on the 12th for another edition of 13 on the 13th because we're going whale watching tomorrow! Woot.

New favorite things

Life is still rolling along I guess. Dan is now in Austin, working for South by Southwest, the big music festival, so I'm stuck here in Berkeley all alone. Don't tell him, but I'm throwing huge parties while he's away. It's shweet.

So, my new favorite things:
1. Bookmooch
I joined this online group called which is a book sharing community thing. Which I totally think Blue Benson should join, BTW Laura. So, you list all the books that you own that you don't want anymore, and then people ask you to send them to them. You're responsible for paying for postage everytime you ship a book to someone, and then when you ask for a book to be sent to you, you pay nothing at all. It's a good time. I listed 10 books on Friday night and by Saturday, 8 of them were already requested! I'm going to have a lovely time at the post office tomorrow morning. Every book you list is worth 1/10th of a point, when you send a book, you get a point, and when you send to people internationally, you get three points. For each point you have, you are eligible to have a book sent to you. So, I've requested three so far. I'm kind of excited about it in my dork way. For reals, if you have a lot of books, and have some that you don't think you'll read again, this is a great way to get rid of them and get other books you actually want to read for free! OR if you don't want to go through the hassle, save your books and give them to me!(http://www.bookmooch.com/)

2. Vosges Chocolate Bacon Bar
OK I know what you're thinking. Bacon in a chocolate bar. EW? People. Let me tell you. This is a fantastically wonderful experience. It's made by Vosges which is a relatively snooty chocoalte company, started in Chicago, and they specialize in odd chocolate pairings (curry powder, lavender, other assorted spices). Yeah, so I heard about this bacon bar which combines two great loves of mine (yes, I count bacon as a love) and decided that I should probably test it out. It's unbeliveable. Sweet and salty and bacony. Real bacon pieces right there in the chocolate. Wow. Stop judging and try it out.

3. Savannah, Georgia
Ok, so I haven't been yet, but I'm visiting Ben and Jess at the end of the month for a couple of days and I'm REALLY excited about it. Not only is it a new place, which is exciting, but CC reunion in a new town? C'mon people, that's the stuff fantastic weekends are made of.

*pauses to consider if people will still be my friend*
4. Fromager d'Affinois (fro-mah-ZHAY dah-fee-NWAH)
Note - I did not write that pronunciation guide.
It's a cheese. A fantastically amazing cheese. I know that this is ridiculously snooty, even more snooty than joining a wine club, but um, it's on the "best things I've ever eaten" list.

5. The weather in the Bay Area in early March
It was sunny, cloudless and almost 70 degrees all week. But it also hasn't been windy, so it feels toasty warm. I've been in flip flops since last weekend.

6. Daylight savings time!
Wasn't that excited that we lost an hour of sleep last night (and seriously, pondering on that...where does it go? It's a little mind boggling that we decide that that hour just simply doesn't exist) BUT I love the fact that the sunlight lasts until 7 PM now. The getting dark at 4:30 PM in December thing really makes me sad.

7. Laura being awesome
So, Laura got accepted into her summer internship program in London which is AWESOME. I hope she's up for visits!

8. Rosa
For serious people, she comments on blogs from around the world. Can't you do the same while you're bored at work?!?

The end for now :) Fun new things to report on soon!

Photo for an upcoming celebration. Happy Birthday Jess!

Random late night thoughts

*I had my first meeting with my new supervisor today, which was great. I think I'm really going to enjoy working with him. We talked about how I would like to work for Semester at Sea soon. He's going to help me out I think. Excitement. *I finished my non-fiction book of the month tonight, which is exciting, I actually met my first goal for the year. Let's see how January goes. Meghan picked my Feb. book and Ro picked my March book, so I guess I have to at least finish those two. *For my birthday, Dan got me Season 5 of the West Wing, and then we got Season 6 for Christmas/Hanukkah. You'll never guess what I got him for his birthday!!! Well, he also got Rollercoaster Tycoon - a NEW version! Can you even believe they still make that game? Anyway, he was upset he never got to play it. I'm pretty sure I'll be regretting that purchase this time next week. *Our cats will not stop trying to eat our food. It's like they're puppies who beg all the time who just also happen to fit in our laps. Also, James=attention whore. For serious. *Dan has this nasty cough/chest congestion thing that makes him sound like a really old man because he's trying to cough stuff up all the time. We've been sleeping in seperate beds because ew. No one wants to wake up to that. *We went out to dinner on Monday and I easily had the best dessert of my life at dinner. It was amazing amazing amazing. Dinner was just good, but who cares? *Seriously, no one suggested any good movies (Kevin Romano, what the heck??) *Have you heard that Britney Spears is only speaking in a British accent in public now? *sigh* I still love "Piece of Me" and I won't deny it. *Currently, it sounds like Dan is coughing up a hairball in the shower. Be jealous.

50th post. Woot.

It really has been a fun month for us out here. Having a car has allowed us to get out and see Northern California beyond Napa Valley. Don't get me wrong, I could hang out in Napa for days and days, but variation is good. Last Saturday, we drove down to Monterey, which is directly north of Carmel and Pebble Beach (famous golf course, no?) and had a lovely time. There were some scenic vistas, and some beaches and a very disappointing lighthouse (Dan apparently has a thing for lighthouses...learn something new every day. I just told him that under no circumstances will we be collecting mini lighthouse figurines) Anyway, we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which is apparently the Number 1 aquarium in the country. Booyah Baltimore! I'm not sure who exactly ranks aquariums, but whatever. They had lots of fun things - fish to touch (Dan was totally the only person over 6 years old who was excited about touching starfish and the like), jellyfish, sharks, and OTTERS. So cute. I would like to have one as a pet, if possible. I think an otter and two cats = happiness, no? Of course, after being in the aquarium for over two hours, I was pretty much done being around shrieking (both with happiness and unhappiness) children. So, we took a lovely walk around Monterey's Cannery Row, which is a long set of old cannery buildings, that are from the 1930s-1950s when Monterey was a huge sardine canning town. No, seriously. Happily, in Monterey, some of this space has been converted into lovely wine tasting rooms in which there is, you know, wine and NO children. Ahhh relief. It really is crazy that no matter where you go in California, there is wine. Wineries on mountain roads, where the wine is actually grown. Winery tasting rooms on main streets in small California towns so that people can actually buy some wine in case they never travel on said mountain roads. Wineries on city piers. Wine wine everywhere. We're enjoying it. We went to two places, bought a couple of bottles and very nearly bought a gorgeous photograph. Please see: http://www.betterphoto.com/gallery/gallery.asp?mem=74968. In non "look how awesome my life is" news, tomorrow is Dan's birthday! He's going to be 26 and he's a little sensitive about how that age is closer to 30 than 20. So, definitely remind him as much as possible. We're smack in the middle of going out to a few dinners for his birthday season, much like we did for mine and we've had some amazing meals. A-m-a-z-i-n-g. Good thing he's sick and can't really taste anything. Ha! In other news, I finished the last book I was reading, "The Stone Diaries." Huzzah, I'm up to 4 out of 100! The author's style was great (her name is Carol Shields) and I got all wrapped up in the story. Have you ever read a book and at the end, assumed the characters are real people you could run into at Safeway or something? That's what her characters felt like. Wait - or is that just me being strange? If so, please still be my friend. Anyway, I'm onto my second book for the month (the goal this year is two books a month - one off the list and one non-fiction) which is called (please no freaking out) "Marriage, A History" and is really interesting. It's just a topic interest people!! OH also - I realized that I haven't been to see a movie in the theater in awhile (I went to see "I Am Legend" while I was home with Meghan and B Drake, but before that, I couldn't even tell you). Does anyone have any recommendations? Also, someone please pick a number between 1 and 100 for my next book off the list. (And by someone I mean probably Meghan, since she's the only one who reads this)

Yes yes I know, we suck at life.

So yesterday we didn't post. In our defense, we felt like crap. I think we should get an A for effort, and chalk it up to the sheer exhaustion of simply trying to post everyday for the past few days. Ugh, our lives are SO difficult. I mean, you really just wouldn't understand. *sigh*

So, I guess I could catch you up on my birthday, since it is still my birthday month and all. And while we don't celebrate the whole month (I'm working that angle though) we definitely celebrated for at least a week. So, really, going to Las Vegas was kind of a birthday present, but it was also for Dan since he'd never been and the trip in itself is a whole other post, but we did have a really good time and we saw Ka, one of the Cirque du Soleil shows that is out there (the one at MGM).

After we got back though, on my actual birthday, we went out to dinner with some of my friends from the summer I spent here. Chris was actually visiting for the week, so that was nice timing, Tiffany drove up just to have dinner with me (cutest.thing.ever.) and we managed to drag Suraj away from his books to go out for just a couple of hours. Dinner was lovely, you know how I love to eat. Tiff also told me she was bringing a present - and she got here and handed me a big box that looked like it was from Dunkin Donuts and says "I got you creme puffs." And in my mind, I'm going...thanks? what the crap? There were a DOZEN of the things and they were humongous. I was more than a little doubtful.

Until I ate one. People, these are some of the best things I have ever eaten. They're from a place called Beard Papa's and they are going to slowly dominate the world. Get excited for something else on the "To do while visiting KK" list, because this will happen.

The next night, which was Friday, Dan did the whole romantic boyfriend type thing. Awww. He went out and strung our whole apartment up with Christmas lights, aiming for that scene from the West Wing where Josh decorates his apartment with lights to make it look like Tahiti for Amy(is this ringing a bell for anyone?) Anyway, I love that scene and so he decorated and made a "tropical" themed dinner for me and then gave me Season 4 of the West Wing as a gift. Don't you love it when themes all come together like that? It was lovely - you should all congratulate him on doing so well :) The only downside was the next morning when I got out of bed ass early to feed the kitties, some of the lights had fallen down, and it looked like I was being trapped in a Christmas lights net of some kind, which was alarming because I didn't have my contacts in. (And this, my friends, is how you overshare in a blog).

The next day, Saturday, I had to chaperone an event in SF, which entailed me simply being in the city in case something went wrong, and so Dan and I wandered about, did some shopping and then ate at a yummy new Thai place that I'm pretty sure if we had tried to go to a couple of hours later, we wouldn't have been nearly cool enough to get into.

And now you're thinking, a couple of dinners out, a romantic night in, yay for your birthday, shut the hell up about it already. But, sadly for you, no. There was more. I'm sure that we have raved to most of you about restaurant week in DC - where restaurants sign up to participate and they serve a 3 course menu for $30, or a 3 course lunch for $20. Well, my friends, I found out (through the millions of blogs that I now regularly read) that the East Bay (which yes, is where Berkeley is) had a restuarant week of it's very own! And of course, it was the week directly after my birthday. So, we had a few more birthday dinners out. Three to be exact. (Truth be told, we had reservations at 4, but cancelled one due to the illness).

So, we got to try three new places - one at the local snooty hotel/resort which is actually pretty famous (The Claremont Hotel. Fun fact - the Cal football team stays here the night before games so they can "focus.") One that is supposed to be one of the best restaurants in the area and another that I simply kind of stumbled upon.

Honestly, our favorite was, of course, the one that I just happened upon - they were so nice and the restaurant was lively but not obnoxious and the food was pretty darn amazing. The snooty restuarant lived up to it's snooty reputation, but it wasn't offputting or anything. The hotel that it's located in has spectacular views of SF and the bay, so that was a nice bonus.

And of course, the other was basically a horrid experience. The server was rude because we ordered the restaurant week menu (which I can kind of understand because it's cheaper, less tip, etc.) and the plates that we were served were basically less than half of the portion if the dish had been ordered off the regular menu. We could tell because we could see full sized dishes being run around and served all around us. I was so annoyed. I mean, if you're the restaurant manager and you commit to doing this promotional week that is supposed to actually bring in business, you need to just do it and not half ass the whole thing. Instead of getting to sample their food at a discount and be eager to go back, I've basically told everyone I know to not go there instead. Ooooo so there! Power to the people! Damn the man! Or...something. I was just upset that we even spent some of our time and money there.

The best part about most of these nice dinners is that we take the bus to get there. Nothing classier than that my friends.

So that's basically the recap of my birthday. Thank you to those who sent cards and gifts (Missy even sent our kitties gifts and they LOVE them. Wow.) and called and facebooked and the like. I appreciate all the love. I am feeling old, yes, but I'm trying to focus on the fact that many of you will be even older much before me. :)

Fo real, sorry about not posting yesterday, I know you just live and breathe by what we post here! We will keep aiming to post every day for the rest of this month. And, we've made a plan for this weekend to kick start the "do something cool" over the weekend campaign, so hopefully we'll have something fun to write about instead of restaurants that you really could care less about.