32nd Birthday 2nd phase

At times of occasion I've historically been quite quick at getting fully spiffed up: shower, shave, lotion, toothbrush, get dressed, aftershave, door. Over the past few months; however, I've added a new ingredient to this little recipe, the ability to style my hair into a mohawk (or mini-mo, as Jess likes to call it). Needless to say, it took a bit longer to get sorted before my birthday dinner, but everything was in its proper place when we left the house.
A constant source of fun for Jess and I is to try and set up a birthday dinner for the other that is both a multi-sensory carnival and a complete surprise. Though San Diego is full of great restaurants, we both avidly browse foodie websites and discuss what we've found, thus making the element of surprise a tricky proposition.
Well, The Jess both picked a mind-blowing restaurant and kept a veil of secrecy over it that would have made the D-Day planners proud. We even got there early and Jess just drove right past it, pretending we were going somewhere entirely different, then doubled back. A brilliant tactician, that one.
The end-result of all this energy and excitement was a restaurant called Market. Anyway, if you've had a quick look at the cocktail list and restaurant menu, you'll understand how delicious food and drink was. We're trying to focus on eating locally grown or produced meat and veg, and that's what this place was all about. The Brandt Farms tenderloin was an absolute triumph, let me tell you!
I know you're wondering, how was dessert, for goodness sake WHAT WAS FOR DESSERT!!??
Well, we didn't eat dessert at the restaurant, because there was a final surprise for me; a Red Velvet layer cake with sliced strawberries in the center, a scratch-made creamcheese icing, and a strawberry glaze drizzled over the top. Best part, each element was hand-crafted by my lovely wife. There are no extant pictures of this masterpiece, but I assure you, it will live forever in the pantheon of great birthday cakes. And this day will be an exciting, loving place for my mind to go when things are tough.