First, I should be honest.  I’m a birthday whore.  I believe that birthdays should be at least a full week long.  So that means the birthday girl, or boy, gets to do the sort of things that they want to do, eat at the kind of restaurants that they want to eat at, for at least a week.  Yes, I’m one of those.

Of course, I kind of make matters a tad worse since well, our anniversary is mere days before my birthday. So technically, I usually celebrate my birth-a-versary for just over a week, usually from weekend to weekend.  Needless to say, we’ve been a bit busy lately.

Thursday was our actual anniversary.  We just stayed in and enjoyed my slightly dry, but very flavorful, braised short ribs and a kickass bottle of wine.  For the record, next time, I’ll use all the same ingredients, but use the crock pot instead.  As it was we didn’t eat until nearly 9:00PM since I kept waiting for that “fall off the bone” I was advised would happen in that hour of simmering.  Not!  It was nearly 2.5 hours of simmering and still not tender.  Oh well.  It was still tasty.

Friday we typically go out to dinner with one of my husband’s oldest friends (and one of my favorite shopping buddies!!)  She had a hellish week so she decided to work from home and well, chose the non-shower, hanging out in her PJs approach to work attire and just wasn’t up to join us for dinner.  Instead, we headed out to Hermosa Beach for some Pedones Italian.  Very yummy.  From there, we walked along the beach a bit.  Very relaxing.

Saturday was a pretty low key day.  We headed out to the Farmer’s Market in Pasadena and grabbed some brunch at Magpie’s in La Canada (our typical post-Farmer’s Market hang out).  I think we’re there nearly every week.  I love their greek chicken pita and salad and their chicken, mango and papaya salad.  So good.  The hub’s pretty much always orders the breakfast burrito with chorizo.

Saturday night though we headed on over to the Catalina jazz club to hear Marcus Miller (the hubs was also shooting the show).  I’ve heard Marcus play a few times now, both with Herbie Hancock and without.  Once again, it was a great performance (and I’m not even a fan of jazz).  It was the 10:00PM show, so once the show was over, and the chitchat with the band was over, we headed back home (nearly the only car left in the parking garage) it was pretty late – even for this late nighter gal.  Prince showed up briefly – and I do mean briefly.  He was there maybe for all of 2 minutes.  Not sure why he even bothered, but whatever.

Sunday we slept in late, well, after both a 6:0AM and an 8:00AM wakeup do to noises outside.  Hell, we went to bed pretty late as well, so sleeping in was quite lovely.  We just lounged around a bit, caught up on some TV (what did we ever do before the DVR?), and read some of Megan Crane’s new book (so happy to finally read it since she was quite excited about when I interviewed her last year some time).

Sunday evening was dinner at Lala’s Argentine Grill with the girls from book club.  Once again, I’m am so happy knowing that through book club I have one helluva group of friends. It’s so great whenever we get together, whether it’s one on one or in a small group, or at book club.  Really, they’re a great group of ladies that I’m so grateful to call friends.  And for the record, the empanadas and sangria are awesome!

Tonight we’ve got the Paddy Casey and KT Tunstall show at the Wiltern.  The hubs is actually out right now interviewing Paddy for his podcast (they already got the music session at SXSW in March).  He interviewed KT last year or the year before at Austin City Limits.    I believe he’ll also be shooting tonight since he was charging his camera batteries last night.  I was directed (ha!) to pick the hubs up at work around 7:00 so we should head over to the show tonight.  It should be interesting since we rarely see both the opening act and the main performer.  I’m really looking forward to it.

Tomorrow, my actual birthday, I’m cashing in my Christmas spa treat and getting both and hour and a half facial and massage.  I can’t wait!  Talk about being blissed out.  I don’t know if we’ll be doing anything else though since we’ve been so busy this weekend.  I’m thinking it might be worth it to just hang out at home for dinner (thai takeout??) and maybe do a fancy dinner out this weekend when there’s more time to relax.

So there we go…why I haven’t been around much these past couple of days.  I spent today catching up on email and running a few errands.  I’m considering treating my birthday self to a new blog design here.  I mean, this is all so drab and boring because I was hoping for something better.  Well, now I just might take matters into my own hands and make some magic happen.

On that note, I’m off to chill out for a bit before hoping into the shower to leave to get the hubs.  Hope everyone is having a fun week thus far.  As to day is Cinco de Mayo, feel free to raise up that margarita and have a birthday toast to me!!