The "Yesterday Was My Birthday!", edition.

Good Friday morning!  Brian is making coffee. He makes great coffee. I am so spoiled!!  And yes, I spoil him also. :-)  Yesterday was my birthday.  I had a pretty good day.  Woke up. Putted around. Eventually headed out to Target. See, I'm make little goodie bag gifts for my seniors.  We got some Santa marshmallow treats, but I wanted more stuff.  So I got some Hersey Kisses and little candy canes.  I figured they liked the Easter candy so Christmas candy should be ok. We also got M&Ms for the house. Plain, peanut and pretzel.  Then Brian suggested we visit the bakery. That's a dangerous place!  We bought some Italian bread and it was sliced for us on the premises.  I also got some more everything bagels, and a cinnamon roll. Brian picked up a pound cake and reasonable facsimile ofHostess  chocolate cupcakes. I also saw a focaccia pizza. The size of a personal pizza. Got a jalapeño one. OMG. Anyway we split it for lunch. Yum yum yum. 

We had an early lunch because we had reservations for dinner at Joe Vicari's Andiamo Italian Steakhouse at The D. Yes. It's the same Andiamo group as the Andiamos in Detroit.  I've been to the one in the Ren Cen several times and the food was great. Brian suggested this one since he hadn't been to Andiamos in Detroit.  As a side note, The D casino has an American Coney Island restaurant and the gift shop sells Louis the Hatter hats.  If we need a touch of Detroit, we can get it here. Anyway, before it was The D, it was The Fitzgerald, owned by Detroiter Don Barden. 

The restaurant is on the 2nd floor of the casino and has an old school, opulent feel. The Ren Cen Andiamos was much more airy, open and modern. The wait staff were in white coats. No appetizers were ordered, but Brian got a wedge salad and I got a bowl of lobster bisque. Just so you know, I'm a sucker for lobster bisque. When we went to Martha's Vineyard years ago, I had it everyday. Anyway. The salad was good and the lobster bisque was heaven. I also had a Bloody Mary. It. Was. Great. It had a touch of spice and wasn't overpowered by vodka. It was damn near perfect.  We left the bread alone.  Why were we taking it easy?  Because we ordered steaks. I am an unashamed beef lover. I make no apologies for my love of a good piece of prime rib or a good cut of filet mignon or as the case yesterday, a 20 ounce bone in ribeye. Mmmm mmmm mmmmmmm.  Brian had a 20 ounce porterhouse.  Yes I could gave ordered the 10 ounce filet mignon, but come on. The bone in rib eye has way more flavor and juiciness!  And I've shifted my doneness from medium well to medium. And yeah, I ate about 1/3 of it!  Lol. And we were served a side of pasta. I tasted it and it was good also. And Brian didn't finish his steak either. 

During dinner, the manager visited us. The servers assistant boxed and bagged our leftover steaks. The server then appeared with a champagne glass with a scoop of mango sherbet in it, poured champagne on it. A birthday treat, they said!  :-)  And I'd never tasted anything like it. It was wonderful!!   And then we had the audacity to agree to look at the desert tray!  Lol. I would have like the chocolate mouse, but the side was covered in coconut and top with mango something.  Bleah.  We ended up with tiramisu. Delicious also. And we probably ate less than half. So full. So good. After we ate, we made it back to the car. And even though it seemed we ate a lot, we knew when to stop so we weren't miserable. Been there. Done that. Wasn't happy. 

Received a call from Shawn, so you know that made my day. Looking forward to her arriving out here on Monday!!!  Dad gave me a nice gift, Brian gave me a watch. I was over whelmed by the birthday wishes on Facebook. And we finally crashed after Jimmy Fallon. :-D  

Skipped dialysis last night but before you fuss and fret, I dialyzed Tuesday and Wednesday. I usually do treatment 5 days a week and only switched to 6 days a week about 3 weeks ago. And I've made it down to my new dry weight...and besides. It was my birthday. So there. Back on schedule today. And I'm banking on being told to return to 5 days when I go to my monthly appointment on Wednesday. So there, again!  

Grocery shopping today. Gonna test drive the roasted Brussels sprouts for Christmas and gonna make the Neelys candied corn and freeze it for Christmas this weekend. I'll let you know the full finalized Christmas dinner menu next week. It's funny. For so long I wasn't interested in fixing a holiday dinner until I got out here in Las Vegas. I found that I'm enjoying hosting the seniors. They enjoy each other's company and it gives them a chance to get together. I'm pretty sure this is something Mom would want me to do!  

That's it for today. Long entry, wasn't it?  It's like that sometimes. Hope you made it to the end. Sunny day out here. Warming up to the 60s soon. And loving every minute!  Take care and have a great weekedn!