Good Day!

I had such a good birthday! Most birthdays are either uneventful, or I'm in Vegas, which is my favorite thing to do in general. This one was really nice, which I was surprised about, considering 32 is not exactly a milestone or anything. I started the day with breakfast at the Coffee Cup. Brande brought me an amazing arrangement with succulent cuttings and flowers from her nursery (Johnnye Merle's Gardens in Orange). Pretty sweet.


I had lunch with M., who got me flowers, of course.

For dinner, we met up with a few of my friends for teppan dinner at Tsunami in Huntington Beach. Excellent food there. Randomly, it was "Flat Broke Wednesdays," which means certain dishes are buy one get one free. Tons of food for about $20 a couple. I think everyone was pleased.

We got the obligatory fire volcano made from onions, and the game of "catch the shrimp in your mouth," which I was a good sport about.

Someone mentioned it was my birthday, so the chef got crafty and made a giant penis out of the fried rice pointed in direction. He then sprinkled sprouts for the pubic hair and cut off the head to serve it on my plate.
I don't know what to say about that...


Then some of us moseyed on over to the Red Room for just a couple of cocktails. It got packed very quickly since it was $1 PBR night. Seriously, it was like a discount birthday. I didn't drink PBRs though, because you know, I'm not 22.
Rachel came out and joined us too.

One of the most awesome things to happen at the Red Room recently (I haven't been in about a month, so it was new to me) is that the evil digital jukebox has a new sign! It reads: "NO REFUNDS. Bartender reserves the right to cancel any song at any time." I love it there!

Thanks to Facebook, I got a million "happy birthdays" which was so nice. Didn't get to see the meteor showers due to the marine layer, but I was on such a birthday high that I didn't mind. At least "marine layer" problems mean you live near the beach!

Friday Finds

I have lately become obsessed with Starbucks' Peppermint Mocha Twist, which, in addition to being incredibly tasty, is also one of their (RED) drinks that contribute money to the Global Fund. I have a limited income thing happening now, so I don't buy them that often, but I recently found Coffee Mate's Peppermint Mocha creamer at my grocery store! It's in no way the same, but a good replacement for a cheapo broke person like myself.

Today's Friday Finds are all craft-related:

The Mayberry Sparrow is a great Etsy shop with hand-made rubber stamps like this:
She even makes custom stamps with your name or whatever you want! If you aren't into carving or don't have the patience, it is worth it to have a hand made stamp of your own.

After working with felt and fleece to make our Chrismukkah stockings, I have a newfound love of the fuzzy stuff. Here's a couple of good options for the holidays:

From Joshua Stone

Cute heart ornament by Sarah Kladyzk:

Looking for something a little more interesting to serve at your holiday party? Check out DrinkoftheWeek.com's Holiday Drink Recipes. The Midori Sparkle sounds like a headache maker, but I'm sure you look very classy while drinking it. Stick to one or two if you want to stay classy throughout the evening. Remember people: drink water on occasion or you'll be a mess the next day.

I'm getting crafty this evening, as I have stockings to finish (will post pics soon), holiday cards to make and stuff into envelopes, and M.'s birthday is tomorrow. I do cupcakes a lot, and it's not very special anymore, so I was going to make a birthday cake, but I decided to make 2 mini-cakes instead. Hopefully I will post how it comes out tomorrow. And my friend Brande and I are going to go out to dinner (Tsunami Sushi again! Yum.) Got to get moving!