La Belle Vie! Joyeux Anniversaire a moi! Well, almost. As usual, the celebration - of, in this case, the end of my 41st year - involves more than one day. Which I love! Yeah, it rather sucks to have a birthday so close to Christmas...the combo Christmas/birthday gift totally bites - and yet, it does somehow stretch out the celebration into something long, slow, and mellow, and I can't one bit complain about that.

So tonight, two days early, the celebration began in earnest, in the stunningly elegant bar at La Belle Vie, just John and me, YES! Bling (including a beautiful new bracelet from Suz), frites (it's no birthday sans frites), langoustines (fried shrimps), vino (Cote de Rhone), and chocolat (in several forms, with a lovely birthday message!) made for a fabulous beginning to this all-about-my-birthday (wink) weekend.

Stay tuned... I plan to celebrate quietly, yet nicely...