The "Starting a New Decade", edition.

Good Sunday morning. The month of celebrations continue!  Yesterday was my 60th birthday!  How about that?  The irony is the funeral of my Aunt Jeanette was on my 60th birthday. Rosie kept me apprised of the details. She also wanted my brother to read my blog entry about Aunt Jeanette at the funeral. My brother agreed to read it. <3. The kidney disease prevented me from attending the funeral. It was in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Sponteniety is not possible. I would not have been able to get the supplies shipped.  I need way to much lead time.  And I don't even know if the travel case would have been available. Even getting to incenter treatment would have been questionable. I'd have been at the mercy of the local dialysis center....like the only time available would have been the same time as the funeral. Ugh. Anyway. I was there in spirit and my cousins have posted photos of cousins afterwards and a few videos were also posted. 

So on with my day. We started with our regular weekly one hour trip to the casino. No, the casino ignored my birthday. Harrumph! Anyway. Brian made reservations for lunch at Benihana. I hadn't been to a teppanyaki restaurant in over 35 years (!). That dates me!!  Lol. Last time was Kyoto near Fairlane in Dearborn.  Hah. Took you back also!  There are 2 Benihanas is Las Vegas and only one was open for lunch. This one was at the Fashion Show Mall on the strip. Reservations were for 1:00.  We left the condo around 12:30. 

The mall is huge. I remembered when it first opened. it was a high end mall. Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Prada. Brian and I walked into the Louis Vuitton store. None of the items had price tags. We got the hint!  But such nice luggage and purses!!!  Anyway, it's now more consumer friendly. But some high end stores are still there. Anchor stores are Macy's, Dillards, Saks, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus. Enough said. Anyway we get there, intending to get valet parking at Macy's and walk on over to the restaurant. Valet was full. Before 1:00. Oh yeah. Christmas season. We drive around to the other side. Nordstrom valet was full. Kept going to the underground parking lot (massive parking lot). Traffic. Jam in the parking lot!  Lol. And we discover valet parking in the underground parking lot. We turn right into it. And oh yeah. They sent the parking info to Brian's phone. Lol. What happens if you don't have a smart phone??

Find our way to the mall entrance. Now we just have to find the way to Benihana. We had to go outside the mall..the entrance was outside.  We enter, Brian says we have a 1:00 reservation, they ask whose birthday is it!  We get seated immediately at a table for 8. We are the last people seated. The other 6 are a family celebrating the mom getting her Masters degree from UNLV. The waitress and service was great. But the best was yet to come. 

Brian and I opted out of appetizers.  Which ended up being a good thing. I got strawberry lemonade and Brian tried an apple sake. Tasty!  Some of the other people got edamame. I actually asked the lady if I could taste one. And she nicely let me. And it was good!  Yes that was my first time. The waitress lets us know that one of the kids has a shellfish allergy and another is vegan and would we mind if their food was prepared first. Of course not!  

After we were served the soup (yum) and the salad with ginger dressing (yum), the chef comes out. Now 35 years ago, the chefs were all Japanese. This time  our chef was a young African American woman!  Chock full of personality and a master of the knives. She put on a show and cooked everything for everybody!  Brian and I had the beef julienne and shrimp.  And the sauces...yum.  Then we all got these massive servings of colossal shrimp.  And then!  The Masters mom and I got ice cream because we were celebrating. And I was full. And the food was good. And Benihana is an experience. We won't be waiting 35 years to visit again! 

We'd planned to walk around the mall afterwards, but we walked straight to the valet area and headed home. Lol. We thought we'd be going out later, but we didn't. We woke up just after 6 that morning. And we just chilled after lunch. So yeah, the reservation was 1:00 but the meal lasts 2 hours or more. We didn't get out until after 3:00. And the traffic in the underground parking lot was still busy. Whoever heard of bumper to bumper traffic in an underground parking lot!  Vegas, baby!! Lol lol. 

No dialysis news. Saturday is my off day. I dialyzed Friday night after spending time with Sherri and her kids, my best friend from high school who was in town. And that's a story for another day. But let's just say we hadn't seen each other in a very long time. And we never missed a beat!  But it sure did make a great birthday present, seeing her!  

That's it for today. And yes it is cold here. Was 30 degrees when I woke up this morning!  And yes it was 70 on Friday. Lol. And yes, it's going to warm back up next week. But even when it's 50 degrees people out here think they are in the frozen tundra. And yes Sherri and her kids laughed at me and Brian when we complained about the "cold". Lol. Enjoy your day. And stay warm!  I do remember what 17 degrees and snow feels like! 

A least Brian looked into the camera. Us at Benihana. 

Our chef at work!