I had quite a pleasant 36th birthday today.

We just came back from a weeklong trip to North Carolina last night, so today was all about relaxing close to home. Julian and I had breakfast together (oatmeal and tea), then we kicked the ball back and forth and played in the backyard. It felt warm and balmy in the late morning, very nice to be outside.

We have a patch of wet swampy grass over at the far end of the yard, and you have to cross it to get to the hot tub. We also have a lot of lovely large tiles left over from redoing the patio, so I tried out various geometric arrangements of the tiles in the grass to see which were the most comfortable to step across as well as being aesthetically pleasing. I figured out the pattern, but didn't finish arranging the tiles. Still, it was a fun task for a sunny winter morning.

Julian finally took a nap and I sewed up some Wraps for customers and dealt with my Inbox. Over 900 emails....yikes. I have customers waiting for Ergo carriers to be shipped out, and no word on my giant 120+ Ergo carrier order, so I 've been freaking out, sending emails to the Ergo rep, trying to figure out where they are. Aaargh. The perils of running a business. Stressful. Once they get here I'll be set, but what the hell...how can it take more than NINE DAYS to transport a few boxes from Southern CA to Northern CA? Pain in my freakin' ASS.

I had a great phone conversation with a guy at an ad firm in NYC, a friend of a friend. He needs someone to do some basic HTML and Flash development part-time, on an hourly project basis. It sounds like easy work, and all the details will have been hammered out and nailed down ahead of time, so no changes and no haggling and no wanting to strangle the client for me. So looks like I got a sweet new low-stress job for a birthday present!

Last night Dan took me to a restaurant we've been eyeing for some time...Arcadia in downtown San Jose. Our meal was absolutely flawless, one of the best I've had in a very long time. Our waiter was a true professional as well and smooth as silk, which is fairly rare these days, but always appreciated. We were actually goofing on him at first, because he was just so polished and practiced and letter-perfect...almost a *caricature* of a waiter, but after about five minutes our goofing turned to pure admiration.

Our menu, which was fantastic and all went together beautifully:

Cocktails:
Cucumber Martini (me)
Delicious and refreshing. I'm not a gin drinker, but I could be if all gin drinks tasted like this. Good gin with cucumber essence, whatever that is. Nice.
Negroni (Dan)
Dan was impressed that they got the orange peel curl exactly perfect, just as as the true and original Negroni should be. Actually, we're not sure if they flamed the burst of orange peel oils over the glass first according to the Completely Anal Negroni Cocktail Instructions, but apparently it was damned impressive anyways.

Small Tasting Plate
Ice Cold Oysters, Littleneck Clams, Local Dungeness Crab, Spiced Gulf Prawns, and Marinated Scallop Ceviche. Amazing champagne mignonette, tiny little bottles of Tabasco, and cocktail sauce.

Coconut Curried Prawns on a Crepe filled with Parsnip Puree
We thought the prawns were good, but then we soaked up some of the sauce and that was even better, and then the crepe with parsnip puree WITH the sauce and some prawn....heaven.

Make-your-own-salad
This sounds like a pain, but basically they present you with a list of really good salad ingredients and you check off what you want with a pencil. Ours turned out great. I don't even remember what we had in it, but it was incredible, best salad I think I've ever had.

Maine Lobster Pot Pie
A signature Arcadia dish, they cook a 2.5 pound Maine Lobster in a ceramic pot with a delicious lobster cream sauce and all different kinds of amazing baby veggies and chanterelle muchrooms. There is a slightly cripsy biscuity thin perfect crust over the whole thing. Oh my word. It did not disappoint. No work or picking required. Our waiter took the lobster out of the pot already cracked, then elegantly reassembled it in the original lobster shape on the serving dish. Nice touch.

Dessert was some kind of butterscotch bread pudding, which I can't remember the exact description of, but which was as flawless as the rest of the meal, and Dan had an exquisite chocolate patisserie with multiple layers of ganache in it, and cherry granita in a tiny crispy edible ice cream cone cup.

Oh, and a perfect Napa Sauvignon Blanc from Rudd (I think?) to accompany everything. Nott too dry or too sweet.

Honestly, I wish that I were a ruminant and had 4-5 stomachs so that I could have tried more dishes. If I am ever stuck on a desert island, that Arcadia meal will be the one that I'll dream about.

We were hoping that Ashley the SuperSitter would have Julian fast asleep by the time we got home, but alas, it was not to be. He was still wide awake, so then I spent another hour and a half getting him to sleep. After that I was so tired that I went to bed and passed out almost immediately. Not exactly the perfect end to the day, but oh well. That's life.