The Daily Sabs

The tasty birthday box

sabs — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 23:55:04 PDT

Today is randall's birthday and to celebrate I made surprise reservations at benu. The meal was delicious (we did the tasting and beverage pairing - thanks to Arthur for the drink recommendation), and while it was completely opposite of the French laundry meal (cooked by the same man and sort of hard to compare), i think I liked benu more. Every detail was just perfect. I particularly loved the magic birthday box. Instead of making a big birthday ordeal, they presented Randall with a music box. When you turned the crank it tinkered happy birthday. It was also lit with a bunch of blue LEDs and then the lid came off and a surprise cake was presented! Super low key and perfect. Just like the meal!

Happy birthday Randall!!!

Not for the fainting goats at heart

sabs — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 01:30:10 PST

Thanks for all the birthday wishes, today turned out to be a low-key but wonderful day. I'm not the hugest woopdeedoo birthday kind of person and decided I wanted to keep it simple this year. It was a gorgeous day out, so Randall decided to drive us north. We ate breakfast, chatted with my mom, and then drove up to calistoga. On the way we stopped for coffee and got some bonus girl scout cookie snacks. We also ended up grabbing lunch at a taco truck.

Once we got to calistoga we headed to old faithful. It's such a weird tourist attraction with a geyser that erupts every 5 minutes or so. There's also a petting zoo there with jackhorn sheep and fainting goats. (You know, the ones you've seen on YouTube!) The goats didn't really faint the way they show, but I did see it once and it was pretty funny ridiculous. Randall was busy feeding a different goat so he missed it. Those goats are pigs though, and ridiculously tame. While there we also saw the cutest baby sheep. I wanted to steal him, but the mini still smells like new car, so maybe next time.

Afterwards, we went to envy for some wine tasting, hung out with more sheep at a castle, and then drove to yountville for some bouchon bakery treats.

When we got back to the city, I played some singstar and then Randall and I met samshrew and chris at nombe. I hadn't been before and wanted to give it a try so Randall surprised me with reservations. The food was pretty good (chicken wings folks, try the chicken wings) but a little greasy. It was however, the perfect drinking food. We stuffed our faces right nice and then headed back home.

Back at the house, we played some virtual bocce ball thanks to the ps3. The games were close and we ended up tied. We also ended up even fuller. Although we did serious damage at nombe, we somehow still found room for some dessert wine, two types of cheeses, chocolate bouchons (posing as birthday cake) and Thomas Keller cookies. It was sort of a magical way to the end the day. If this 33rd year (that's right, I just outed my age) is anything like today, then it's going to be a pretty awesome year indeed.

ps. thanks to kele and eric for passing the pigs. what a fun surprise, and perfectly timed!

duckfaces and chicken trumpeters. oh what a birthday.

sabs — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:20:55 PST

I was sitting there minding my own business, and sort of enjoying the gray lowkey birthday, when all of a sudden i heard this loud horn. At first I thought it was a car from outside, when i realized it was too loud and besides, all the windows were closed. Then I thought that perhaps it was someone who had put their speakers on full blast. Then I realized it wasn't just a series of horn noises, it was actually the opening notes to Just a Gigalo, which as you might know is sort of my jam. So when the noise got closer, and a giant trumpet-playing chicken carrying balloons rounded the corner, i knew it was for me.

I don't embarass easy, but I am pretty sure I turned a nice shade of "have you been drinking wine?" red. Especially when he said it was time to do the chicken dance. I didn't think i was going to do it, but you know, there was a giant chicken, playing the chicken dance song, and a quickly amassed audience intrigued by the ridiculousness, and well, who am I to not oblige?

So I danced a chicken dance, hugged a chicken, received lots of weird gifts (really he had this homeless person mary poppins bag full of things like a rubber chicken, a jordache purse, stickers, plastic eggs, candy necklaces, and so on), and if that wasn't enough, the gals brought me treats too.

You see, the gals here are UNBELIEVEABLE. We've sort of made birthdays a big ta-do around here. And before the chicken arrived, I actually thought we were going to do just a nice lowkey thing with maybe cake at lunch. Which you know, would've been awesome, but they don't settle for just awesome. they go for BONKERS AMAZE. and they succeeded. In addition to the chicken, they also got a huge array of the desserts from the 7x7 must eat list. Now i can cross off 5 more things.

Like i said, these gals are the freaking best.

But, before I knew that there was a chicken, I had originally planned on sharing a little bit of vintage sabs with you. This is me at age 2. It's actually my 2nd birthday party and I'm surrounded by friends, family, a cake with candles, and yet that is the face I chose to make. It's like an immigrant child passport photo. I would like to point out a few things though (1) my head was always huge (2) my hair was always unkempt (3) my posture was always poor and (4) my dresses were even cooler back then.

Birthdays are weird you know, but so far, this one's been fun.

Oh and because i know you're waiting for it. Here's the chicken in action.
I know there were other videos, but this is the one i took while he arrived.

it are my birthday

sabs — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:44:36 PDT

so here i am, a whole year older.

if the rest of the year is anything like today then i've got a lot of fevers, tea, naps, singing birds (netflix recommended enchanted to me, so i watched it. i can't believe i sat through it all, i blame the sickness. way too saccharine for my tastes), law & order reruns, and tartine morning buns (randall surprised me with one this morning) to look forward to.

and while it's not the most awesome of birthdays (especially since i had randall cancel dinner reservations because right now food sounds awful, even if it is offal), there are plenty of worse ways to spend the day. i mean if it wasn't for the fever and achey bones, it's been a pretty sweet day of doing nothing.

thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes. especially burger who is in the lead with the "Rip di di di di di dip it's your birthdaaaayyyyy" reference.

oh and i totally heart netflix on demand.