They Say it’s Your Birthday, Well Happy Birthday To Ya!

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Whew!  It’s a riotous time here in our little Gastronomicom World.  Many parties are taking place.  Some people have finished there allotted time and are having going away get togethers, others party because it is Friday after all…or is it Saturday.  Then there are the spring babies.  One of those celebrating a spring birthday was Steve.

We thought we’d be clever and have an afternoon party.  That way people would attend knowing that partying into the wee hours with a pig under one arm would be highly unlikely.  Yeah….right.   It started off quite civilized, but don’t all parties.  We had blinis with smoked salmon and caviar, seared duck breast with Dijon mustard of course, spicy hummus, a savory puff pastry and many bottles of champagne and wine.  Most people did what we so cleverly thought they would do, and left to go make their dinners and whatnot.  But then we were 6.  Six brave, hardy, energetic, loaded soles.  The sun came out.  That was in itself enough to spontaneously morph into yet another reason to celebrate.  MANGO’S!!  I remember yelling…like it was some kind of religious awakening.

So off to Mango’s we went, some arm-in-arm to hold each other up.  The walk was indeed sunny and pleasant.  But sadly it wasn’t nearly long enough to sober us up in the slightest.  The proprietor at Mango’s graciously served us a few beers and tolerated our unnecessarily loud discussion about topics supremely hilarious that we can’t remember.  And why the hell were we so loud – there was no one else there; it wasn’t as if we were struggling to be heard over ambient noise.  That should have sealed it; a few beers at Mango’s and then to our respective houses.  But no.  We felt compelled to crank our old school playlist sporting numbers such as ‘Car Wash’ and ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ and dance like people possessed for hours back at the apartment!  I’m sure you have the imagery – air washing cars, and bizarre karate moves….you know….yeah, yikes.  We managed to only break the sofa and take a few incriminating photos, so the deposit is still in good standing.  As for our livers…

I have made an executive decision that my liver is indeed the enemy and must be punished.  So I have quit French (I can hear the sigh of relief from my instructor) and have signed up for the Sommelier course!  I actually talked Steve into joining me; I saw he was experiencing a moment of weakness and I took advantage.  So we will be swirling and sniffing quaffable French wines during the week and on Wednesdays we will have field trips to surrounding wineries.

Sounds far less painful than conjugating irregular reflexive verbs or putting my personal pronoun in the right place.  Swirling I can do.  Drinking…I think I have an MBA in that already.  So stay tuned for our reports on all things grape related here in the south of France.  Santé!