So now I am closer to 40 than 30

A couple weeks ago it was my 36th birthday. I've been so crazy busy lately I haven't had a chance to write about it. It was nice, not too exciting. My friend, Jamie, surprised me at work with a tin of different teas, and from Edwin and the girls I got a shawl, a sweet little picture frame, and a puzzle of the New York Times cover the day I was born. That night Edwin and I went out for dinner and left the girls home with Lucy. I insist we go out for dinner on my actual birthday, and we did. The way I see it, I'm accommodating to other peoples' schedules the other 364 days of the year, those other people can accommodate me for one day.

I had asked Edwin to keep it a surprise where we were going, so he didn't tell me until we were on our way. The plan was to go to 20-21, the Wolfgang Puck restaurant that's housed in the Walker Art Center. I was excited at the choice, we hadn't been there before and I'd heard great things about it. It's considered Asian fusion, which I enjoy and would like to explore some more. However, when we got there and had a chance to check out the menu it became obvious it wasn't going to work out so well. Practically everything appeared to be made with nuts somehow, and when we asked the server about it she informed us that only one or two items on the entire menu did not have nuts, or could be made without them or without peanut oil. So we politely left. It all turned out in the end, because the hostess at 20-21 heard about our situation, and gave us the card of the assistant manager at Temple, also an Asian fusion restaurant but not one to use peanut oil in their dishes as widely as 20-21. So, we went to Temple (formerly Tiburon), showed the card, and got a chef's table, heck any table without a reservation. And the food was fabulous. I joked afterward, no one tell Anna that I had duck! LOL! She would never forgive me!

A week or so I got my hair cut short and colored, so I have a new hairdo. It's quite shocking at first, a real shake-up for me. I was concerned that Anna might be afraid of me but she's not fazed by it at all. So now it's just a short bob, at my chin, and a dark, deep red color. This time I've bought some special shampoo and have vowed to actually wash it with lukewarm water, to make the color last longer. We'll see. The nice thing is that it washes out so gradually, I don't really notice exactly when I go back to my true color, anyway.

By the way, don't see the movie The Producers. It's bad, really bad. How that could happen, we don't really understand. We'd seen the show when it came to town years ago and loved it, and the movie seemed perfectly cast. Oh well. The last movie I saw in the theater was Marie Antoinette, which I enjoyed (did I write about this already?). I had just seen the documentary about her on PBS, and loved the costumes, and of course the scenery as it was actually filmed at Versailles. About a month ago I'd picked up Pride and Prejudice so I'm anxious to find some time to watch it, and watch it all in one stretch rather than a bit here and a bit there. I figure it's the perfect chick flick for when Edwin is out of town.

All for today.