I had a really lovely birthday. I worked all day (well, so it was lovely aside from that and the agonizing VPN troubleshooting on the phone--"Remote Assistance" wasn't working). Rahul left me a card on my computer that I found when I got up in the morning. Since he scheduled a meeting for the evening, I thought we wouldn't make reservations anyplace since we weren't sure when we'd be able to go.

When he got home, we got dressed and went out to Tallent to see if we could get a table.

Then, when he walked in, he said, "Hi, I have a reservation." So he planned all along to get back in time for our reserved dinnertime, and actually called ahead for reservations! It was a small thing, but it meant a lot.

Here's what we ate:

Indiana Duck Breast
Sweet Potato Roesti, Cauliflower, Golden Raisin Olive Relish

Trout
Lemon & Herb Stuffed, Parsley Cous Cous, Sundried Tomato Vin

They also brought us amuse-bouches--a crispy sweet potato chip with smoked salmon, ham, and lemon aioli, and about 10 other things all piled on top in miniscule amounts. After dinner, we were given one thin, chewy chocolate cookie each.

The nicely dressed people across the room were talking loudly about all kinds of unsavory topics. Really loudly:
- "So I was scraping the scar tissue off my groin with a butter knife..."
- "I found out I could pull on the tendons and make the claw [apparently a cut-off pheasant foot] open and close. Then I forgot it in my desk one day and got in trouble when the teacher found it because of the smell..."

And a man dining by himself at another table stood up and I saw to my surprise that he was about four feet tall--he looked normal-sized sitting down, so he must have had really short legs. Between the conversations and the small man in the suit, it started to feel very Lynchian indeed.

We went to Runcible Spoon afterwards. Rahul and I shared a Blind Dave's Mocha (chocolate ice cream, whipped cream, and coffee) and had some champagne. Jeanne and Steve came to join us, and Melinda stopped by with her friend Adam and brought me a rose from the table where she'd been sitting at a law school banquet. There was a private party in the main room to honor Sherman Alexie, and they gave free bottles of wine to the management, so the owner came by and gave us some free glasses of the sparkling red.

Mom and Dad sent me cards, and Mom also UPS'd a box of fancy chocolates that arrived the next morning! I haven't tried the chocolates yet, but they're very beautiful.