OK, so, I just turned 30 last week, four days ago to be precise. Anyways, it was the best birthday ever.
On Wednesday, my birthday eve, my in-laws took us all to The Button Factory in Muscatine. We ordered the Twisty Onion Haystack for an appetizer and it was yummy, like onion rings, except better. You know how when you eat an onion ring, and you take a bite, and all the onion comes out, and it is really lame. These don’t do that. For my dinner I chose the Chicago Style Italian Beef sandwich. Superb! I have never had this type of sandwich before, so I don’t know if it is “authentic” Chicago Style or not, but who cares, it was dang good. Then we g0t a free dessert, a brownie with ice cream, which also was quite tasty. And huge enough for all of us to share.
On Thursday (my actual birthday) I had to work but then when I was done, we had a little birthday party at work. Becky (my boss) made some sort of blueberry cake and somebody else brought in some fresh fruit. Then Kate and I took the kids over to the Weatherdance Fountain (that is not us in the picture, it is just a picture from Wikipedia) at the Ped Mall, and they played around in there for a while. Then we had Michael’s t-ball game that night.
Friday, we left for Ankeny. Josh gave me a turkey fryer that I’ve been wanting, and Becca gave me a really nice Iowa Hawkeye shirt(s). We played cards or something the rest of the night.
Saturday, there was a BBQ competition in Ankeny in conjunction with Ankeny Summerfest, so we didn’t have to travel far. For Summerfest, they have a parade which lasts for more than TWO hours!!! If Josh and I were in it for candy, we would have had a ton. Unfortunately, the food we judged during the competition was… below average, to put it nicely.
Later Saturday I was surprised by Jason and Big Elise coming over, so that Josh and Becca could take Kate and I out to dinner. We were going to go to the Texas Roadhouse, but decided instead on The Cheesecake Factory. I had been there before twice for cheesecake only, which is really good, but this was going to be my first time going for actual food. I was in for a treat!
We got there and took I think literally over 30 minutes to order, because I couldn’t decide what I wanted. The Cheesecake Factory is known for its extensive menu, and seriously, so many things sounded great. I could have probably narrowed the menu down to 30 items that all sounded equally good and I would have been happy with any of them. I finally decided on the Crispy Chicken Costoletta:
Chicken Breasts, Lightly Breaded and Sauteed to a Crisp Golden Brown. Served with Lemon Sauce, Mashed Potatoes and Fresh Asparagus
Um… YUM! It was soooo good. Even the mashed potatoes were the best ever. Josh got the Club sandwich, Kate got a burger, and Becca got a different chicken dish, Chicken Piccata, with a different sauce. I tried a little bit of everybody’s, and it was ALL good!
Then I got to meet a friend of Josh’s who works there, and I told him how great it all was. He talked about how they have over 3000 ingredients back in the kitchen, and everything is made from scratch, even sauces. The lemon sauce on my dish, they make about every 4 hours. And the mashed potatoes, they have to make every 45 minutes. It would be crazy back in that kitchen.
We didn’t eat any cheesecake there, but took a whole cheesecake home with us (half regular/half low carb) and shared with Jason and Big Elise. What a great dinner, and for less than you’d expect :wink:
Seriously… the best birthday ever.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!!! Sorry we had to kick your cans at canasta.
CHRIS SAYS: Well, if you noticed, I kinda left that part out.
Happy birthday and stuff. You are now old, that’s pretty cool. It made me laugh that Kate got a burger. I had forgotten that she always gets that.
It does sound like a few good birthday celebrations. It would have been fun to be there.
If you guys want to come visit sometime we can go out for sushi. Chris, I think you would love the stuff, and it’s way healthy to boot!
Anyway, happy birthday again. You are awesome.
You also never told me about your job. Where do you work? Is it just for the summer?
I have never been to the Cheesecake Factory but I guess it’s worth a shot. Now you and Kate are middle aged.
Okay, not quite yet but you’re definitely on your way. Sorry, Kate.
> Lisa! Bite your tongue!
Chris, I can’t tell you how hurt I am that in all your birthday revelry you forgot that I sang happy birthday to you AND I sang it on-line to boot. Thanks for the acknowledgment, Chris…seriously,=.
Kate loves her burgers. If we go out and she doesn’t get a burger, she gets a sandwich. Oh well, I still love her, in spite of that.
I’ve been out to sushi with Rusty, and with my friend Drew, here in Iowa City. It’s… weird. I think I even took Josh out for sushi once.
I work in a computer lab on campus. I help people when they have problems. 95% of all the people I have to help are people who can’t print anything. Of those 95%, probably 99% of their problems are that they don’t have any more money in their printing account, of those, probably 99.9% SAY they have checked and there is money, only for me to go over and find out they didn’t really check and they could have saved me trouble by just checking themselves. Oh well.
Oh Jessica, I am so sorry. It meant a lot to me, seriously it did. I even told Kate about it, and if it didn’t mean anything I wouldn’t have told her. But, it happened 4 days ago, and I struggled to remember everything that happened. What I wrote was far from complete. Chalk it up to old age I guess…
Glad you enjoyed your birthday, even if you did have to turn 30. You are now 1/3rd of my Dad’s age, hope you make it! In-laws.
This is Josh
I think there are other things you left out. I think you would also recommend saving your DVD-R Lids!!