July 11th

Hey
Its the 11th now. I had a great day yesterday!

I got up and went to the gym to get me going. After a shower, I walked to mile end. A hipster/hasidic Jewish community with greatly unique shopping. I stopped at a chocolate shop where I bought 3 truffles. I got one Piment, one extra virgin olive oil, and one balsamic that cost 3 dollars because of the high grade cocoa that they use. When I told them that it was my birthday, one of the woman came at me with a heap of "chocolate disaster" that I was allowed to sample from. Apparently the machine went crazy and tempered the chocolate wrong. It still tasted delicious though!
After the chocolate shop, I ventured to laurier street where all the post home stores are. I didn't find anything that I liked, an the woman in the stores didn't take my hot pink sunglasses seriously. I DID buy a Tintin character mouse pad at a toy store though.
On my way home I stopped at a antique store and bought a retro stand up ash tray, a portrait of a naked lady (very classy), a black and white photo of a wedding party, some port glasses, and a wooden planter box. I scored! I dropped my loot of at my house and went down to a local dep (corner store), and bought a bunch of fresh live herbs for my planter box. My patio looks great now.
After all that shopping, I needed to eat, and to sit down. I got redressed and headed to Jen's place, then onto l'express, for dinner. True to my luck, as soon as we left Jen's place (me in my white dress), the thunder and lightning storm started. It poured. It really really pissed. We ran to the restaurant and got there just in time. Once in the restaurant, looking out the window you would think that firemen were spraying at it from the other side. Crazy rain!
L'express is the closes thing to a true Parisian bistro. It was a long narrow room, with a long bar on one side, and mirrors the whole length of the other side ( a trick to make it appear bigger). It was noisy, lively, and full of good dinner energy. I had an octopus and lentil salad, and braised lamb shank with a glass of reisling and a glass of bourjoulais. Jen had the lobster bisque and the quail. The meal was great. Rustic-bistro-homestyle food.




I had two surprises during my meal. When I was distracted by my phone call from Bronwen, Jen managed to ask the waiter for a special birthday dessert. When it came, with a candle, I went red. It seemed like everyone in the restaurant was looking at me. I think its because they were. Thank god they didn't sing! After the waiter dropped of the cake, I saw a man at the table behind us get that waiters attention. A moment later the waiter appeared at out table with champagne. He told us that it was from the gentlemen behind us. We raised out glasses and mouthed our thanks across the noisy room. Wow, thanks mister! It was really cool. He didn't expect or want anything in return. That's classy.
With the rain gone, and the night getting longer, we walked home together. We ran into my boss and manager going to have a late night bite. They both gave me kisses and birthday wishes. I love running into people here. When I dropped jenny off we ran into two guys that I work with. They were going to shwartz's for smoked meat, and invited me to come. I went and got a birthday pickle and a cherry coke. I stayed until 12:05.

Day one of being 24 went pretty well. Wish me luck with the other 364.
lots of love
megan