The long overdue birthday party post
Yes I know it's been over a week but I've been a busy bee.
L pulls out all the stops when she's planning a party, that's the first thing I have to say about my party. She bought a dozen latex balloons in green and white, mardi gras beads for everyone in various Irish motif/designs. Some of them even lit up and you could make them blink at different speeds or keep them on steady. She also had this one massive Mylar balloon that's about 3 times the size of a normal Mylar balloon. On top of that she had bought me a Happy Birthday Hat that was shaped like a cake and a pair of happy birthday sunglasses. She also bought several feather boas that were green and had little Ireland flags on them. And she had bought a couple disposable "message" cameras. Those are the ones that every picture has a message on it when developed that has some sort of happy birthday saying on it. (I got the pics developed today and some turned out great others... not so good. LOL)
We went to a Vietnamese/Japanese restaurant called the East Wind in the trendy Quadrangle area in Dallas (I'm not sure where exactly I'd say it is, uptown, downtown, whatever but it is in the city proper.) Our reservation was for 7:00 for 20 people. But with our crowd, hardly anyone is ever on time and we knew folks would be late, but many were much later than we anticipated. So that meant we didn't really even order dinner until after 8:00 by the time everyone showed up. About 12 people actually came to dinner. I knew some folks wouldn't make dinner because they had to work and were meeting us later, but a couple people who said they were coming didn't. We ordered a few appetizers while we waited and I tried calamari for the first time, though I didn't know what it was until after I had taken a bite. I figured it was the usual tempura you get in Japanese restaurants so I had some. Literally after I took the first bite I heard L mention to someone else it was calamari. For people who don't know me really well, I have an aversion to eating calamari. I always said I refused to eat something that shoots ink out it's backside when it's scared. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't the best thing I've ever eaten and it was quite chewy so the texture is not something I'm fond of. I can now say I've tried calamari but don't expect me to eat it again! I still have that thing about the ink-shooting that bugs me. LOL
After dinner came the cake. L had ordered a half sheet chocolate chocolate cake with glazed strawberries on it. Oh was it good!!! I still have some of it at home though. We polished off about 3/4 of it at dinner but I brought the rest home. Kept meaning to bring it to work and keep forgetting. So I'm VERY slowly finishing it myself at home. We had a moment of fright (well they did anyhow since I couldn't see it) where as the waiter was trying to set the cake down in front of me, OVER my head, the cake hat was in the way. MP was directly across from me and she said afterward she thought surely he was going to drop it right on my head! And the candle were lit so she was afraid he was going to catch my hair on fire! But no mishaps ensued and the cake made it to the table, in one piece and without setting anything on fire. I'm glad I didn't know about that part until AFTERward or I'd have been a little freaked at the near miss. LOL
L got me a big candelabra I'd been wanting from her Home and Garden Party catalogs to put in my fireplace (I've never actually used the fireplace for a fire and there's no grate to build the fire IN but I wanted something in there.) The candelabra looked from the measurements in the catalog like it would fit. And it BARELY fits. It brushes both sides and the top of the opening. I'll only be using tea lights in there as the highest candle holder is smack against the top of the fireplace opening. But I can slide tea lights in through the side and still be able to light them. It sure is pretty though and it'll look really nice I think when I burn candles in it. S and K each brought me flowers and MR got me one of those Hallmark cards that plays popular songs. Mine is the chicken dance. So of course when I opened the card I had to do a little chicken dance in my chair. LOL
By the time we finished with everything it was about 10:00. Next stop on the agenda was the Martini Ranch bar. I had wanted to go to a martini bar since it seems to be all the rage presently and I wanted to see what the fuss was about. Well I found out! I could SO easily get used to doing that regularly. LOL I tried three different kinds: the Debutini which was blue and fruity, the wedding cake martini which was red and sweet and yummy. Not sure where the "wedding cake" part came from but it was still good. Then I tried an appletini which was like drinking an apple jolly rancher. YUM! I also tasted several other people's drinks as well, a chocolate martini and a suntini just to name two. At this point the crowd started dropping off since it was almost midnight. We had talked about going dancing afterward but since we took so much longer at the restaurant than we anticipated, most people were too tired to go dancing as well. L had been my ride for the night since she knew I intended to have some fun at the martini bar. LOL but she was exhausted and ended up leaving, after making sure someone would be able to drive me home.
We had put all my stuff in N's truck after we left the restaurant and before we went to the bar. B got elected to take me home since N and E were the only two who were actually still going to go dancing. So we transferred everything to his car and he drove me home. I felt a little bad though because he lives the completely opposite direction from where I live so it was a good bit out of his way to drive me home, especially after having put in a 13-14 hour day at work and having to be at work at 7:30 Saturday morning after the party. If not for all the stuff I had to take with me, I'd have just taken a cab, but with the remains of our cake, my monster Mylar balloon my big candelabra, two bouquets of flowers and assorted others things, a cab would have been a little difficult.
I guess it was about 1:00 or a little before when I got home and I went to bed.
The next morning I discovered a not so great thing about the huge balloon. Aker was absolutely TERRIFIED of the balloon. I had left the balloon in the living room with the ribbon dangling on the floor. Well Aker must've thought it was a monster come to eat him because he would not come out from under the bed for TWO WHOLE DAYS! I lured him out twice but when we went towards the living room he freaked out and took off for the bed again. I have the claw marks up and down my stomach to show for it where he launched himself out of my arms. The second time this happened I realized it must be the balloon causing the problem. Amun wasn't too keen on it either and avoided it at all costs but he wasn't as bad about it as poor Aker was. At least he was willing to venture into the sky monster's territory, he just kept his distance. LOL Sheba couldn't care less one way or the other. So I moved it into the closet and Aker was back to normal within an hour. And now, even a week later, the balloon is still flying high and not losing its buoyancy. But in the closet it will stay until it's done for. I'm glad I didn't bring the latex balloons home. I was afraid L would be upset I left them at the restaurant but now I'm glad they didn't come home with me. If I'd have brought them home, poor Aker would've been traumatized for life! (In an aside I was in that storage closet today putting some stuff away. Balloon is still fully inflated and bumping the ceiling. Aker likes to go hide in the closet so he ran for it when i opened the door. But he saw that balloon and came to a screeching halt and took off. So if I hadn't been sure before, I sure would be now! Aker hates balloons.)
And that is the story of my birthday celebration. Hope it was worth the wait.
L pulls out all the stops when she's planning a party, that's the first thing I have to say about my party. She bought a dozen latex balloons in green and white, mardi gras beads for everyone in various Irish motif/designs. Some of them even lit up and you could make them blink at different speeds or keep them on steady. She also had this one massive Mylar balloon that's about 3 times the size of a normal Mylar balloon. On top of that she had bought me a Happy Birthday Hat that was shaped like a cake and a pair of happy birthday sunglasses. She also bought several feather boas that were green and had little Ireland flags on them. And she had bought a couple disposable "message" cameras. Those are the ones that every picture has a message on it when developed that has some sort of happy birthday saying on it. (I got the pics developed today and some turned out great others... not so good. LOL)
We went to a Vietnamese/Japanese restaurant called the East Wind in the trendy Quadrangle area in Dallas (I'm not sure where exactly I'd say it is, uptown, downtown, whatever but it is in the city proper.) Our reservation was for 7:00 for 20 people. But with our crowd, hardly anyone is ever on time and we knew folks would be late, but many were much later than we anticipated. So that meant we didn't really even order dinner until after 8:00 by the time everyone showed up. About 12 people actually came to dinner. I knew some folks wouldn't make dinner because they had to work and were meeting us later, but a couple people who said they were coming didn't. We ordered a few appetizers while we waited and I tried calamari for the first time, though I didn't know what it was until after I had taken a bite. I figured it was the usual tempura you get in Japanese restaurants so I had some. Literally after I took the first bite I heard L mention to someone else it was calamari. For people who don't know me really well, I have an aversion to eating calamari. I always said I refused to eat something that shoots ink out it's backside when it's scared. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't the best thing I've ever eaten and it was quite chewy so the texture is not something I'm fond of. I can now say I've tried calamari but don't expect me to eat it again! I still have that thing about the ink-shooting that bugs me. LOL
After dinner came the cake. L had ordered a half sheet chocolate chocolate cake with glazed strawberries on it. Oh was it good!!! I still have some of it at home though. We polished off about 3/4 of it at dinner but I brought the rest home. Kept meaning to bring it to work and keep forgetting. So I'm VERY slowly finishing it myself at home. We had a moment of fright (well they did anyhow since I couldn't see it) where as the waiter was trying to set the cake down in front of me, OVER my head, the cake hat was in the way. MP was directly across from me and she said afterward she thought surely he was going to drop it right on my head! And the candle were lit so she was afraid he was going to catch my hair on fire! But no mishaps ensued and the cake made it to the table, in one piece and without setting anything on fire. I'm glad I didn't know about that part until AFTERward or I'd have been a little freaked at the near miss. LOL
L got me a big candelabra I'd been wanting from her Home and Garden Party catalogs to put in my fireplace (I've never actually used the fireplace for a fire and there's no grate to build the fire IN but I wanted something in there.) The candelabra looked from the measurements in the catalog like it would fit. And it BARELY fits. It brushes both sides and the top of the opening. I'll only be using tea lights in there as the highest candle holder is smack against the top of the fireplace opening. But I can slide tea lights in through the side and still be able to light them. It sure is pretty though and it'll look really nice I think when I burn candles in it. S and K each brought me flowers and MR got me one of those Hallmark cards that plays popular songs. Mine is the chicken dance. So of course when I opened the card I had to do a little chicken dance in my chair. LOL
By the time we finished with everything it was about 10:00. Next stop on the agenda was the Martini Ranch bar. I had wanted to go to a martini bar since it seems to be all the rage presently and I wanted to see what the fuss was about. Well I found out! I could SO easily get used to doing that regularly. LOL I tried three different kinds: the Debutini which was blue and fruity, the wedding cake martini which was red and sweet and yummy. Not sure where the "wedding cake" part came from but it was still good. Then I tried an appletini which was like drinking an apple jolly rancher. YUM! I also tasted several other people's drinks as well, a chocolate martini and a suntini just to name two. At this point the crowd started dropping off since it was almost midnight. We had talked about going dancing afterward but since we took so much longer at the restaurant than we anticipated, most people were too tired to go dancing as well. L had been my ride for the night since she knew I intended to have some fun at the martini bar. LOL but she was exhausted and ended up leaving, after making sure someone would be able to drive me home.
We had put all my stuff in N's truck after we left the restaurant and before we went to the bar. B got elected to take me home since N and E were the only two who were actually still going to go dancing. So we transferred everything to his car and he drove me home. I felt a little bad though because he lives the completely opposite direction from where I live so it was a good bit out of his way to drive me home, especially after having put in a 13-14 hour day at work and having to be at work at 7:30 Saturday morning after the party. If not for all the stuff I had to take with me, I'd have just taken a cab, but with the remains of our cake, my monster Mylar balloon my big candelabra, two bouquets of flowers and assorted others things, a cab would have been a little difficult.
I guess it was about 1:00 or a little before when I got home and I went to bed.
The next morning I discovered a not so great thing about the huge balloon. Aker was absolutely TERRIFIED of the balloon. I had left the balloon in the living room with the ribbon dangling on the floor. Well Aker must've thought it was a monster come to eat him because he would not come out from under the bed for TWO WHOLE DAYS! I lured him out twice but when we went towards the living room he freaked out and took off for the bed again. I have the claw marks up and down my stomach to show for it where he launched himself out of my arms. The second time this happened I realized it must be the balloon causing the problem. Amun wasn't too keen on it either and avoided it at all costs but he wasn't as bad about it as poor Aker was. At least he was willing to venture into the sky monster's territory, he just kept his distance. LOL Sheba couldn't care less one way or the other. So I moved it into the closet and Aker was back to normal within an hour. And now, even a week later, the balloon is still flying high and not losing its buoyancy. But in the closet it will stay until it's done for. I'm glad I didn't bring the latex balloons home. I was afraid L would be upset I left them at the restaurant but now I'm glad they didn't come home with me. If I'd have brought them home, poor Aker would've been traumatized for life! (In an aside I was in that storage closet today putting some stuff away. Balloon is still fully inflated and bumping the ceiling. Aker likes to go hide in the closet so he ran for it when i opened the door. But he saw that balloon and came to a screeching halt and took off. So if I hadn't been sure before, I sure would be now! Aker hates balloons.)
And that is the story of my birthday celebration. Hope it was worth the wait.
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posted by Kelley @ 10:22 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
What an awesome birthday celebration!
I want to visit that Martini bar.
Thanks Pennie. We had a great night and most of my good friends were there which made it even better.
Yeah I owe pictures for this one too. I will get to them at some point, honest!
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