Birthday!

Yesterday was the birthday of my wonderful better half, Sarah - so we celebrated accordingly: A wonderful dinner and great seats at Cirque du Soleil's Corteo. I thought that I would surprise her with these things, but no, no, no - she is much too wiley for such simple feints. I shall have to try harder next year...

Regardless, here are some pics from the evening:

We ate at Cafe le Jadeite, which is literally 5 minutes away from Sarah's apartment. Despite being Asian/American fusion, nothing on their menu tastes cliched - we especially enjoyed the soups that evening (Sarah had a pumpkin/seafood soup that was quite tasty, and I had an incredible lobster bisque).

For our main course I had a very tasty Alaskan wild-caught salmon with crab meat and two apparently rowdy shrimp (hence the harpoon-like skewer).

Sarah opted for the chef's special: surf and turf - lobster tail and filet mignon. I had never had filet before, so she let me try some. I truly don't think I will ever have better beef, unless I luck into some from Kobe.

For dessert we (intelligently) opted to split a double-chocolate concoction that could best be described as decadent beyond belief. You can see Sarah waiting patiently for me to finish photographing so we can begin devouring. It was quite yummy.

From there it was up to the north side of Houston to see Corteo! After some wrangling with Houston's lovely lack of highway signage (Beltway 8: a desert of information), we arrived.

We took this shot of the scrim in the main tent before we knew that photography wasn't allowed. Oops. We had great seats, and apparently near notable band clinician John Benzer who we saw at intermission. Needless to say, the entire production was gorgeous. Not nearly as over-the-top as I expected, but an amazing show with gorgeous, gorgeous music.

At intermission, we visited the souvenir booth and tried on some interesting hats. I think I bear a striking resemblance to a character from Fiddler on the Roof here... or Witness.

Sarah, on the other hand, would look fabulously at home in The Great Gatsby...

And here we are, in front of the Corteo trailer.

All-in-all, an excellent evening. Sarah's 23rd birthday was quite a fun evening for all involved, and I'm looking forward to actually surprising her next year. Happy Birthday, Sarah!