It's that time of year again...

Tonight I went out with my friends Jenny, Kristine and Bob to celebrate my birthday a day early. We went over to Bad Albert's in Ballard, a little neighborhood bar that also has great burgers. It was so fun to kick back with a couple of cocktails on a Thursday night, plus there were presents which made it that much better!

Jenny gave me a BEAUTIFUL pair of Nepalese moonstone dangly earrings set in sterling silver, plus some yummy truffles from Chocolati. On top of the pretty floral wrap was one of my favorite You Send Me cards--it has a little black kitty wearing a crown and playing with a hot pink ball of yarn, and it says, "Queen for a Day." So cute! Kristine and Bob gave me a "bee-day" present that was so cool, I wished I had brought my camera to take pictures as I unwrapped it. It was wrapped in my favorite black and white wrap from the shop with yellow ribbon, with a handmade card that said "Happy bee-day!" tied on top. Inside, there was yellow tissue with a copy of one of my favorite woodcut bee designs tipped on; then there were 4 presents, each wrapped in yellow tissue with a black band of ribbon and the same (but tiny) bee tip-on. This may be boring to some of you but for a wrap-oholic like me, it was heaven! The presents were totally themed, too: a tea-leaf scented candle whose black/white scroll label recalled the wrap; a box of matches with old-fashioned bee illustrations on both sides; beeswax lip balm; and a gorgeous glass bottle of honey. Seriously, it's not even officially my birthday yet and I have already had so much fun!

Later in the evening, the waitress brought over a piece of ice cream cake smothered in whipped cream and chocolate sauce for me. Kristine, Jenny and Bob started singing "Happy Birthday," and the bar was so small that almost everyone else joined in. What a great way to kick off my 29th year.

Since I didn't have my camera, we came up with a birthday haiku to commemmorate the occasion:

to bee or not to
be twenty-nine forever
that is the question