What to do when it is your birthday and your husband has taken the afternoon off of work to spend it with you? That was the question Friday afternoon. I didn’t really have an answer so I sort of let the day happen on it’s own. After a lunch of Chinese food (not a buffet) we headed off to do some recreational shopping. Don’t tell anyone but I really wasn’t into shopping. My mind was blank except for the brave acts of a 12 year old girl named Lin. I had started reading The Firebrand by my nano buddy, Debra Kemp, that morning and I just wanted to keep my nose in the book. Yes, the book is that good! Back to the shopping though, I knew I needed a new CD Rom drive for Lil Miss’s computer so I decided I would shop for that. Did you know there are so many choices out there? It’s amazing. Now one of the things I hate about going into the discount electronic stores is that they tend to follow you around asking if they can help you. Take a hint the first time I say “No” and quit stalking me! I have a strategy and I talked the G-man into playing along. I played the part of a deaf mute. They would come up to me with a big smile and start asking if they could help me, but I would point to my ears and then start using sign language. They took off faster than a turkey at a food bank on Thanksgiving day! And they didn’t bother us at all while we were in the store browsing. Try it sometime, you might like it.

In the late afternoon we went to a movie. We went to see Will Ferrel in Stranger Than Fiction. What a good movie. I really enjoyed it. I am one of those rude people that don’t silence their cell phones though. In the middle of the movie my mother called to wish me a happy birthday. I don’t know how to silence a call once it starts on my flip phone so I merely flipped it open and then hung it up. Yes, I hung up on my mother! Well she just called right back! So that time I answered it and whispered, “I’m in the movie theater”. People around me were giving me nasty looks. I was afraid they would lynch me in the parking lot. It all worked out though.

The real birthday treat came after the movie when the G-man and I went to http://www.mitchellsfishmarket.com/. We started off our evening with some yummy raw oysters. We squeeze a touch of lemon on them, put a few grains of horseradish on them and top it all off with one drop of Tabasco. Sheer heaven in a shell! The G-man had a dish that was somewhat like a seafood stew for the entrée while I had the tastiest pecan encrusted trout with a brown butter sauce. We ended the feast with a dessert of crème Brule. Any birthday that involves seafood is a good birthday indeed!

After dinner we came home to open presents. The G-man is one of those people that make you wait until the last part of the day for your presents and this year was no exception. It was worth the wait though. He gave me a coffee shop for my Christmas village. This one is especially nice as not only does the inside light up, but also the little street lamp on the outside of it lights up and a tree in the back of it has Christmas lights that actually light u and blight on and off in pretty Christmas colors. And then there was the last present. He gave me the prettiest pair of gold earrings with real rubies in them! I may have to snoop through his credit card receipts to find out how much he paid for them. All in all it was a good birthday.