51st birthday!

Today is my 51st birthday. Not only did I make it to 50, but I made it another year and am still holding this cancer at bay. My next goal is to make it to 60 :-)

A. took the day off and we went out to lunch to a Vietnamese restaurant in our old neighborhood. There aren't any Vietnamese restaurants around here and I really miss it, we really need to go down there more often. We had some summer rolls, split a Vietnamese hoagie and a country beef dish. Afterwards we went next door to the Asian supermarket and stocked up on boxes of loose gunpowder green tea (2 kinds, Special and Extra, I don't know the difference but just made a mug of the Extra and it's really, really good). For $5 I think I have enough for a year, maybe longer! We got a bag of those big tapioca pearls, and an assortment of fun Japanese candy for Z.'s Xmas stocking (including some Pokemon candies, I'm not even sure what the candy is, but she'll be happy because it's Pokemon and as long as it's got sugar in it, the candy will be fine with her).

Then we took a walk through the Italian Market and stopped at our favorite cheese shop. Oh, it's been a long time since we've been there too, and it was so tempting to buy the place out. We bought some smoked fresh mozzarella (theirs is so good), a tub of their Gorgonzola cheese spread, some aged Gouda and some other cheese that was really good and really expensive and I don't remember the name of. Also some wine cured Alfonso black olives, one of my favorites. I really miss having that place nearby too, but it's probably better that we have to make an effort to get there or we'd be eating way too much cheese.

From there we went to the Italian bakery that is literally around the corner from our old house. We were going to buy 3 vanilla cupcakes for my birthday tonight, but saw some tiny coconut cakes and vanilla cakes with pretty lavender flowers, so we got one of each and a cupcake for Z. Then we saw a marscapone eclair and decided to get one of those. We brought it home and made decaf cappuccinos and split it as our belated dessert/afternoon snack. Oh my, it was one of the best eclairs I've ever had.

A. just went out to pick up Z. at the bus stop. I have no idea what we'll do tonight besides eat cake and open presents. Maybe we'll go out to dinner, we'll see how we feel. I'd prefer to eat light and save room for the cake!!