the birthday lowdown

After the whole frozen pipes debacle, I unwrapped my presents.. a Kindle from The Husband and Fifty, and from my mother; The Complete Works of Jane Austen in hardcover. There's something funny about receiving a kindle and a book that weighs five pounds on the same day. Alas, I love them both as well as the other present my mother sent...

That's right. Now I have my very own Mr.Darcy to swoon over (and not that poor man's Mr. Darcy in the Keira Knightley version, the real Mr. Darcy as he should be, as in Mr. Firth). This is the gift that keeps on giving because I get to make The Husband watch it while I shout, "Oh Mr. Darcy!" in a hoity toity accent. Fun.

We went out to dinner just the two of us and as I was getting ready, I had a truly horrible realization... The Husband and I hadn't been out to dinner alone since we were in Texas at the end of summer. Poppycock you say! But you know, January is January. December is Christmas and preparing for Christmas. In November we went out in Avignon with friends, and out to dinner in Dublin with Friends. Disco Gayle was here for a month between September and October, so no date night time there, and there you go, Texas in August.

The saddest thing... we can't even count our last dinner in Dallas at The Landmark because the manager of the hotel, who had some sort of man crush on The Husband, crashed it (oh, have I never told you about him - it was a wee strange, but he was very sweet, hung out with us the ENTIRE night, which meant we drank for free, but it also meant that we were not alone. Romantic it wasn't).

And there you have it, our last 'date night' turned out to be at Chilis in Texas. That's gross. If I had known that my hankering for southwestern egg rolls would turn into my last dinner out with The Husband for five months, I would have picked another restaurant.

So I was so excited about our little dinner date that I had not one, but two Kir Royales before dinner, which I think was totally allowed considering... as well as that oh so delicious bottle of Vacqueyras, and the génépi digestif.

Dinner was so wonderful that I didn't even care when I came home to find the pipes had frozen again.

bisou