Let the celebrating begin!

Well it's here. One of those birthdays with a -0- behind it. And I don't feel a bit different. Well, maybe a little shocked. Daniel kicked off a week of celebration between my birthday and Christmas for treating me to dinner and later a drink yesterday evening for my birthday. We went to Da Nang in Albany. It's unique (to my knowledge) in that it serves both a Thai and Vietnamese menu.

We started with a Vietnamese spring roll appetizer. It was thumbs up for me, and thumbs down for Daniel who didn't like the lettuce inside. No worries, I ate his share!

Daniel ordered from the Thai side, choosing spicy green beans with shrimp and scallops. I tried a bite, and we both gave it thumbs up. The green beans were cooked perfectly tender crisp.

I went for the Vietnamese vegetarian birds nest with fried tofu, gluten and fresh vegetables over crispy noodles. I adored this, and would drive over the Richmond Bridge just to have this again! The only missteps here were a little less than attentive service and having to ask to change out the plates. Mine had a big chip out of it, and Daniel's looked like it had cigarette ashes on it. The food was fabulous though.

After Da Nang, still being young enough (who knows tomorrow!) to have some energy left, Daniel took me to the Albatross. This was quite a cozy pub, and we enjoyed .50 all you can eat popcorn and some pear cider (hard). I overheard a man at the other end of the table say to his friends, "I'm poorer than I've ever been, yet I'm the happiest at the same time!" I feel the same, relative poverty can be a tool to balance one's life again, as long as it doesn't go over the line into abject poverty, a sure recipe for misery.