OK, so, as many of your know, as you get older, birthdays get less and less eventful. 
In fact, this year we decided to combine my birthday (35) and Eric’s b-day (31-which was today!) and go somewhere that we’ve been joking about going to for years now….Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in Pasadena.   It was eventful! 

If you’ve never been there, you should…whoa… 
Turns out that Jennene and Eric and I had all been to RCSH before, but it’s such GREAT food, that we were gleefully prepared to throw down the usual $100/plate again.  As Providence would have it, they were running a rare special of 2-three course meals for only $89!!!!  So, we took advantage of 2 of these specials and shared the following feast, served by our animated server, Stanley…
-Salads: 2 ceasar salads, house salad, gumbo (with shrimp/crab)*
-Appetizers: creamed spinach, potatoes au gratin, fresh broccoli, julienne potatoes
-Entrees: filet, stuffed chicken, 2 3-item entrees (crab cakes*, beef, stuffed chicken)
-Dessert: cheese cake, duo chocolate, creme bruele 
(I tried all the seafood dishes too!)

For 2 hours, we paused, groaned, laughed, commented like we were judges on Top Chef…the food was mouthwatering and never ending.  We had all worked out hard in the morning and eaten very little all day so that we could enjoy the feast to the fullest.  I even had 3 fillings done at the dentist…nothing could prevent us from enjoying such great food.  Thanks, God.  Thanks for making some food taste really really really good. 

The conversation was fun, the atmosphere was nice, the food was …well, you know, and the price was great for all that we got.  After we sat back and marveled at the 2 hours, we made our way over to a theatre and saw a really complex and interesting film called In Bruge (disclaimer: there is a lot of swearing and blood).  There were some really good themes going on: redemption, sin, guilt, judgement, etc. 
It’s probably not for everyone, but certainly it was for us (most of it).

All in all, the celebration of God giving Eric & I a combined 66 years of life on this planet, was an honor to spend with cherished friends (J, E, Ruth and Chris)!