....they say it's yer birthday....

and what a lovely, lovely birthday it was. i am now (at last) beyond the realm of teen-dom and on my way to adulthood (though, as julia asked last night at dinner, 'adulthood? wait... when is that supposed to start again? 30? 35?'). but my weekend was lovely. sunday was a quiet one -- went for another walk, accompanied by laura this time, stopped by saintsbury's to get some last minute things for dinner (crackers and brie for a pre-meal snack, along with some yummy italian salad dressing and butter for the bread), made a borders detour and bought the latest issue of uk vogue, and then went back home where i more or less chilled out before it was time to start cooking. val, laura and i got started first, cleaning down the (absolutely filthy) kitchen and making it sparkly clean and bright. boiled water for pasta, was joined by luke, put out the brie and crackers, popped open a bottle of chardonnay semillon (rosemount. my new favourite), seasoned my salmon steaks and put them in the oven.... was joined by andre and julia, along with claire, and later amelia, who made an amazing, amazing salad... had a bit of a crisis over not having enough pasta sauce, but was rescued by claire, who had some extra stuff stashed away.... then, at last, everything was ready and we went to the (newly-cleaned) dining room to chow down. it really was like a lovely dinner party, complete with good wine and people that i really enjoy and care about. of course, since there were a good number of history nerds present, conversation turned to the "epic awesome-ness" of gladiator and gladiatorial fights, and the superiority of swordfights and duels to our current justice system. sigh. the night was topped off with a completely sinful chocolate cake, picked by laura as a surprise, and everyone sang me happy birthday. yay!!!! our wines also really hit the spot. val, laura and i made a trip over magdelen bridge on saturday (not as far as it sounds; about 10-15 minutes on foot) and took advantage of the threshers 'buy any 2 wines and get the 3rd free' deal and came back with: cave du turckheim alsace riesling, rosemount 2004 chardonnay semillon, and a chilean rose that was really awesome. after the food and the cake were finally finished, everyone pitched in to do the dishes (except for me. i was forbidden from dishes washing, probably because i insisted upon cooking myself), and then we retired for an early night. so, yay! thanks to everyone for all the cards and emails and well wishes.... 'twas quite appreciated. now, i must turn my attention to --- erggg -- work. more soon!

val and me.

mmm.... food. my salmon steaks, along with the garlic bread i made and amelia's salad, in progress...

(l to r) luke, me, and amelia

sigh. the amazing, amazing cake laura bought. those truffles were absolutely KILLER.

and the cake. all gone. or, as queen would say, 'all dead, all dead.'