A day later and a year older….

I turned 43 yesterday! Thank you Lord!
I actually started celebrating my birthday last Wednesday with dinner at Scoma’s on Fisherman’s Wharf. I had the broiled salmon with garlic mashed potatoes and an assortment of veggies.
Friday, I stopped off at Bakesale Betty and picked up cupcakes for my co-workers. We had carrot cake cupcakes topped with cream cheese frosting and chocolate cupcakes topped with chocolate frosting. They were very well received. Now if you ask why I bring my own dessert to celebrate my birthday, it is because no one will bake for me. I am really not a dessert snob. 🙂
Friday evening, I went with friends to Blackberry Bistro for dinner. I had a yummy salmon dish (I will give you the exact details later) and warm banana raisin bread pudding with Chantilly cream and warm caramel sauce for dessert. The highlight of the evening was going to the Framelight 30 Film Festival to see the Maurice Jamal film, Dirty Laundry. I will only tell you that the film was excellent and if it comes to your city, please go see it. Hopefully, this film will be in theaters later this year. Kudos to Maurice!
Saturday, I attended a BBQ in the afternoon and went to the opening concert of the Stanford Jazz Festival in the evening. On the bandstand was The Cyrus Chestnut Trio (Michael Hawkins on bass and Neal Smith on drums) with special guests Donald Harrison on saxophone and Wycliffe Gordon on trombone. It was a magnificent concert. I will tell you more about it later.
Sunday, I did a lot of celebrating, a lot of walking, took a lot of pictures, and even some dancing which I think I am still feeling the effects of today.
On my birthday, I rested and talked to friends near and far. I had a late lunch of waffles, hash browns, and sausage at Ole’s Waffle Shop in Alameda. I went to the beach and played with my camera, tripod, and remote control. The photo above was taken while there. My challenge was trying not to have the remote control look so obvious in the photos. After the beach, I headed to Berkeley for a music fix then to dinner at Tropix. I had the calamari and the jambalaya. Very tasty! It was definitely a good day!
Thank you everyone for all the birthday wishes and cards. Special thanks to S and D for buying me my jazz photography dreambook. I aspire to have one of my own one day.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 27th, 2006 at 7:38 am. It is filed under Special Feature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.