Thanks to everyone who attended the big birthday bash on Friday night. We had a lot of fun. And thanks for all my wonderful pressies and cards. Lola particularly enjoyed those that came with tissue paper.

It was a low key birthday weekend, mostly spent researching the sights and sounds of New York in preparation for the big trip. Luckily most of this research could be done while sitting on the couch.

I did make it out of the house a couple of times. A girl has to eat after all. Being my birthday weekend, I got to eat at two of my all time favourite restaurants - The Mouse and Bean for some cheese laden beef tacos and Kam’s Place on Davie for my favourite Sha Cha chicken with coconut rice.

We needed to find a bar that was both showing hockey and serving more than bar snacks on my actual birthday, so we tried out Yaggers up the street. The food was surprisingly good considering the bar gave me severe flashbacks to all that time I used to spend at UBC frat parties - and I found myself ducking down expecting to see some ex-boyfriend from those days.

I had the rock prawn risotto and Ry had the Gorgonzola mac and cheese. The crowd was insanely diverse and kept us entertained with the people watching. Holy cow were there some drunk folks there!

We also fit in a matinee at Tinseltown so we could catch “Thank you for Smoking,” the story of a tobacco lobby spokesperson. Pretty damn funny.

Overall a very nice birthday weekend with my best birthday pal in tow, with lots of rest to get me ready for the big trip. Thanks to everyone who helped make it special.

Back to planning! Maybe I’ll be able to post from NYC.