On my actual birthday-day I didn't expect much excitement - the cabin trip a few weeks ago had been the official "celebration" of the birthday, but I knew a few people would be in town and didn't want my birthday to feel like a complete letdown, so I'd scheduled drinks with friends in the evening.
During the day, I decided to treat myself to hot water. I was going to go to Kabuki Springs in San Francisco, but the weather was shitty and half the reason I wanted to go to the city was to take the ferry home, so I decided to use some of my birthday money from my parents to treat Chris and I to a hot tub at Albany Hot Tubs, and a light lunch at Bui. We shared the banana flower salad, the claypot sea bass, and a glass of gwuertz. It was delicious as always. The hot tubs were intensely relaxing. Got a little bit of sunlight in the tub as well, which was great.
At home it was time for presents. I'd already gotten some nice things: two beautiful scarves from my friends, and a big mortar and pestle (I'd seriously been wanting one forever) from my brother. Chris parents bought me the robe I'd really wanted from Target. But Chris was insistent that his presents were awesome. What did he get me?
Those, my friends, are Mikimoto pearls. He got me an 18 inch Mikimoto pearl necklace. I'd mentioned to him on a few occasions, although not recently, that "adult" women are supposed to have a couple of essential things to be classy: a good pearl necklace (it's ok to giggle) is one of them. A good black handbag that can be casual or dressy is another. So the second gift is:
Yeah, apparently getting me a necklace of the finest pearls in the wold wasn't enough for Chris, he had to get me a freakin' Coach purse as well. Ridonkulous! I am now one classy bitch.
To make things better, he'd put the pearls in a special container, which was the first thing I opened:
He had me open the Coach purse second, as a counterpoint to my Twilight "bag". I feel the internet will appreciate this. And that I gave Rpattz a pearl necklace.
Later on, we headed to Flora, where we had several things off the starters menu: scallops with roasted beats, vermouth cream sauce, and meyer lemon marmalde, butternut squash pudding souffle with chanterelles and watercress, poutine with fresh curds and a short rib gravy, and the star of the show, two orders of the foie gras with persimmon pudding, vanilla cream, an a huckleberry reduction. We were going to have the famous caramel pudding with sea salt as dessert, but the foie gras was so rich and sweet there was no need. We also had two fabulous cocktails there - Chris the "Vicar in a Tutu" (cavaldos, lemon, maple syrup, bitters) and me the "Carter Beats the Devil" (repasado tequila, agave nectar, lime, bird's eye chili tincture, and mezcal).
After that we met up with![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
surly_ass , Jennifer, Gabe, Matt, Margaret, and Greg at Somar, which is a nice-ish new bar on Telegraph. Later we moseyed on down to Penelope, which is an adorable bar that was having a special event for "Plaid Friday" (i.e. a "shop local & independent" day) with $3 bubblegum shots, great tamales, and LARD CHIPS. We met up with Tony and his new girl Roberta here, and somehow I was having drinks shoved in my hand all night long. Some other girls were having a going-away party there, and they insisted on sharing cake and getting the entire bar to sing "Happy Birthday" to me. I kept drinking these awesome drinks called "Oaktown Heat" which had Hangar 1 Mandarin Blossom vodka, habanero infused vodka, and some other stuff. I love spicy drinks! People gave me lots of good advice about turning 30 - I ended up as the youngest person in our group, as I had at the cabin, which was helpful at least. handler showed up as well!
Somehow Tony got Chris,handler , Roberta and I back to our place, where we walked over to bay_bus_rider and arlan_bishop 's Thanksgiving party, wheremingerspice was throwin down on the piano - he figured out how to play "Bad Romance" for me which was pretty much the best thing ever. There was much pie and singing and the good times continued, thanks to our gracious hosts who didn't appear to mind me bringing in 3 drunk strangers. We finally got back to our place pretty late, and I crashed out happy and grateful for my awesome boyfriend and rad-ass friends. Y'all gave me a truly wonderful and memorable birthday and I love (almost) everyone. I got a ton of well-wishes on Facebook too and I feel good about this turning 30 business.
During the day, I decided to treat myself to hot water. I was going to go to Kabuki Springs in San Francisco, but the weather was shitty and half the reason I wanted to go to the city was to take the ferry home, so I decided to use some of my birthday money from my parents to treat Chris and I to a hot tub at Albany Hot Tubs, and a light lunch at Bui. We shared the banana flower salad, the claypot sea bass, and a glass of gwuertz. It was delicious as always. The hot tubs were intensely relaxing. Got a little bit of sunlight in the tub as well, which was great.
At home it was time for presents. I'd already gotten some nice things: two beautiful scarves from my friends, and a big mortar and pestle (I'd seriously been wanting one forever) from my brother. Chris parents bought me the robe I'd really wanted from Target. But Chris was insistent that his presents were awesome. What did he get me?
Those, my friends, are Mikimoto pearls. He got me an 18 inch Mikimoto pearl necklace. I'd mentioned to him on a few occasions, although not recently, that "adult" women are supposed to have a couple of essential things to be classy: a good pearl necklace (it's ok to giggle) is one of them. A good black handbag that can be casual or dressy is another. So the second gift is:
Yeah, apparently getting me a necklace of the finest pearls in the wold wasn't enough for Chris, he had to get me a freakin' Coach purse as well. Ridonkulous! I am now one classy bitch.
To make things better, he'd put the pearls in a special container, which was the first thing I opened:
He had me open the Coach purse second, as a counterpoint to my Twilight "bag". I feel the internet will appreciate this. And that I gave Rpattz a pearl necklace.
Later on, we headed to Flora, where we had several things off the starters menu: scallops with roasted beats, vermouth cream sauce, and meyer lemon marmalde, butternut squash pudding souffle with chanterelles and watercress, poutine with fresh curds and a short rib gravy, and the star of the show, two orders of the foie gras with persimmon pudding, vanilla cream, an a huckleberry reduction. We were going to have the famous caramel pudding with sea salt as dessert, but the foie gras was so rich and sweet there was no need. We also had two fabulous cocktails there - Chris the "Vicar in a Tutu" (cavaldos, lemon, maple syrup, bitters) and me the "Carter Beats the Devil" (repasado tequila, agave nectar, lime, bird's eye chili tincture, and mezcal).
After that we met up with
surly_ass , Jennifer, Gabe, Matt, Margaret, and Greg at Somar, which is a nice-ish new bar on Telegraph. Later we moseyed on down to Penelope, which is an adorable bar that was having a special event for "Plaid Friday" (i.e. a "shop local & independent" day) with $3 bubblegum shots, great tamales, and LARD CHIPS. We met up with Tony and his new girl Roberta here, and somehow I was having drinks shoved in my hand all night long. Some other girls were having a going-away party there, and they insisted on sharing cake and getting the entire bar to sing "Happy Birthday" to me. I kept drinking these awesome drinks called "Oaktown Heat" which had Hangar 1 Mandarin Blossom vodka, habanero infused vodka, and some other stuff. I love spicy drinks! People gave me lots of good advice about turning 30 - I ended up as the youngest person in our group, as I had at the cabin, which was helpful at least. handler showed up as well!Somehow Tony got Chris,
handler , Roberta and I back to our place, where we walked over to bay_bus_rider and arlan_bishop 's Thanksgiving party, wheremingerspice was throwin down on the piano - he figured out how to play "Bad Romance" for me which was pretty much the best thing ever. There was much pie and singing and the good times continued, thanks to our gracious hosts who didn't appear to mind me bringing in 3 drunk strangers. We finally got back to our place pretty late, and I crashed out happy and grateful for my awesome boyfriend and rad-ass friends. Y'all gave me a truly wonderful and memorable birthday and I love (almost) everyone. I got a ton of well-wishes on Facebook too and I feel good about this turning 30 business.2 comments | Leave a comment
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