The Quarter-Century Anniversary of my Birth

It's my birthday! Quarter century. Woo hoo! It's my party and I'll cry if I... wait! That's not right. No crying today, any of you, 'cause it's my birthday.

I got flowers delivered to work during lunch today. Aren't they pretty? Thanks, Mom and Dad!

I started off my birthday week by painting pottery. Of course, since I'm slightly CDO (OCD for those who don't need things to be in alphabetical order), I didn't finish painting it yet so I have to go in another day to finish it, but it was nice to sit quietly and work on something artistic. I inadvertently eavesdropped on some girls at the table next to me who apparently all had terrible boyfriends and were on the verge of breaking up. Ah, the drama of college romance. And stop those disapproving glares. I wasn't intentionally listening in on their conversation; it's just hard to ignore when it was being broadcast to the room. 

To celebrate, I went out with a few gal pals for dinner. As I mentioned last Thursday, it's Restaurant Weeks, so we enjoyed a three course meal at Up Restaurant. After discussing dominant eyes and being the most intriguing table by testing out our ocular dominance while at the table, we tucked into our food. Here's what I ate:

First Course - Duck Lettuce Wraps: julianne english cucumbers, green onions, carrots, cilantro and

garlic chips, served with tangy hosin and sweet chili sauce

It was between that and Crispy Brussels Sprouts And Artichoke Hearts with truffle aioli, which fortunately LMR ordered.

 Second Course - Crispy Skin Half Duck with orange sauce and brussels sprouts

Though I didn't eat any, KAOS's Beef Short Ribs were fall-off-the-bone juicy...

Third Course - Flourless Chocolate Cake (yeah, yeah... not Paleo, but hey at least it's flourless, right?)

But because it was my birthday,  I got a free birthday cube, which allowed me to bring the flourless chocolate cake home for later.

Our post meal group photo, kindly taken by the gentleman working the valet stand:

A couple weeks ago I posted some goals that I wanted to accomplish by today, my birthday. Unfortunately, I didn't do so well at meeting all of them. As you're aware, I got sick the other week and so I just haven't been exercising much (whenever I have, I've been unable to breathe properly and end up light-headed) and have been failing at will power. The one thing that I did achieve was limiting alcohol consumption. In the past 3 weeks, I've averaged 1 drink per week. Though that's going to change this week due to birthday celebrations.

Anyways, I'm thinking about making weekly goals so that it's not so daunting. And it'd be like one goal per week. For instance, this week I want to make sure that I put in 30 minutes per day of physical activity, even if it's just walking. That's what I did this morning after waking up at 6:15 a.m. without an alarm. Woo hoo!