Current mood:	grateful
Entry tags:	family, silliness

Birthday Weekend!
Friday night I FINALLY got to eat at the Brazilian place people rave about: Sampaio's. My friend Leslie treated me for my birthday, and we both had yummy mahi mahi cooked in banana leaves. So tender! The spices were so tasty and the coconut milk so rich! I also like their little rice yeast rolls, which don't set off my wheat allergies. Even though I was stuffed, I still did a creme brulee. Hey, I was celebrating!

Leslie eats there at least 2x a week, and when I remarked how awful the service was (it was friendly and sweet, but rarely there), she said it was always like that. The previous crew had been let go and the new crew had a better attitude but was scarce too. I think the management of the place must have the problem in that they don't schedule enough coverage. It wasn't crowded, and with food that tasty it should be. I think they've burned too many customers by ignoring them...

Then Leslie showered me with cool b'day gifts -- neat and unusual yard art and bird feeders, and cool tea cup with a ceramic strainer built in. Belgian chocolates! And then amazingly, an LCD TV! She really loves her 40" Sharp Aquos, so she got me a 20" one. I'm not a two-TV household, but I now plan to be! (Growing up, my dad was a TV repairman on the side, so we had one in every bedroom and a big TV in the den.) I haven't decided yet where it'll go -- I need to discover my cable connections...

Saturday night, J4 took me back to the same part of town where we had dinner next to Sampaio's at Blue Star Cafeteria. She got a fun-looking basket of fried oysters and homemade potato chips. I had a Waldorf salad made with apples and oranges -- delicious! Then I had to try their coconut chess pie. J4 also got me a book about life changes (Finding Your Own North Star) and got herself the same book so we can workshop together. While we were there, a squall blew in and dropped big ol' honking pieces of hail onto the metal roof of the Cafe. It sounded like a war zone! Customers were dropping their plates and jumping out of their skins! Once it was clear, I rushed to my new (relatively, only 1.5 years old) Prius to look for dents, but found none. Whew! [But later we found two, at $75 each to repair, which made that fun meal cost me $150!]

My actual birthday was yesterday, same day as Mother's Day. My mom arranged for my family to drive north from South Austin, where they all live, so we could go to the Cheesecake Factory, where I'd pick up the bill and Mom would pay the tip. It's always a big deal to get them on this side of town, but my dizzy old mother munged up the arrangements. Result: two cars of family members showed up, each thinking the other had picked up Mom. But nope. And oh, they were steamed and frazzled because it was all arranged so confusingly. So we drove back to South Austin, I picked up Mom since I was the least huffy, and we ate catfish. Mom got me a large, cool flower pot for my patio. My sibs, who have no money, got me cards but did contribute $$ each toward paying the dinner. From me, Mom got organic truffles and a Mount Vernon black iron trivet.

Also got calls and emails from friends, so thank y'all all!