Happy Birthday to Me!!

What I'm Listening To: Happy Birthday, DUH! No, actually, it's Destroy Everything You Touch by Ladytron

I'm pretty sure this picture is from my 10th birthday. Well, I know I had that shirt in 4th grade. It said "Abby" on the back in sparkly iron-on letters. Yeah, I know, super cool me. Jello? ha! At least I didn't have one of those ribbon and bead barrettes in my hair like Olivia Newton-John in Xanadu, the movie that was all the rage that year. Have you seen it? I hope you answered YES, or basically I'm not talking to you until you watch it. Oh, watch it and LEARN THE SONGS, I should say. It's fabulous!! The costumes, the drama and oh, the best part of all, the unforgettably awesome soundtrack!! I played that album until I wore a groove right through the vinyl. Sigh. Maybe it's a cheesy movie and Olivia is retarded, but I LOVED IT!!! Yeah, let's leave it there, shall we?

Birthdays are always awesome to me and one of the reasons is that the whole getting older thing doesn't faze me at all. Recently I was talking with my friend Wendy about an old roommate that I had in San Francisco and how she'd never tell us how old she was. WTF? Why not? Who cares, really? I guess it's easier to say this when everyone tells you that you look 30, like people do to me. At Hesper's bridal shower last weekend people thought I was the YOUNGER sister, and not just because I'm a total goofball, duh. It's because of my cute lil baby face! :)

This year's birthday is 10 years after my golden birthday, which was on February 28, 1999, while I was living in San Francisco. That was one of the best birthdays I've ever had. We made it into a multiple day affair. The first part was a goth theme party. I forced everyone to wear black, and all we listened to was goth crap like Bauhaus, Cure, Siouxsie and Jesus and Mary Chain. I made a Stonehenge replica out of rice krispie treats. We watched Saturday Night Live, and they even had an episode of "Goth Talk" on just for me, right? Will Ferrell as Baron Nocturne who worked at the Cinnabon was the best ever!!

Then the next night a couple of my guy friends, who were in a band at the time, decided to treat me to their version of "Don't Fear the Reaper" by BOC. OMG, it was awesome!!! I still have the photos from that night, me with a maniacal grin of glee on my face, and covering my mouth so I could try to stifle my embarrassed giggles because it was so super adorable!!

Then that same night, after this fantastic musical interlude, we went over to Bimbo's 365 Club to see Guided by Voices. It was such a great night and a wonderful golden birthday! Thank you, guys!!

Now, that was a good night, for sure. But I'm thinking that this birthday week/celebration may just top that glorious memory! My husband has been showering me with fantastic birthday gifts, some of which contain the letter X in the title. Yeah, get your mind out of the gutter, it's a video game console, ya pervert!! I bought a bunch of makeup from Sephora online, and it just showed up yesterday, so now I have a new palette to play with for spring. In March, another friend of ours is cooking us dinner in honor of my birthday! And don't forget the night out with my girls!

Unfortunately, there's only one thing that hasn't gone my way in the past couple days. Gossip Girl is not cooperating this week and they showed a RERUN instead of a new episode. Shame on them. But worst of all, no CHUCK for my weekly fix? What am I gonna do? Sob!!

But besides that, I am truly blessed with many great friends, a loving husband and lots of fun birthday adventures. I feel so lucky to have made it to this ripe old age and be all chock-fulla wisdom, happiness and just plain ol' contentment. So happy birthday to me! I deserve it!Thanks!

Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you!

I will have a blog post by this Friday....I swear. Things have just been a little hectic around Casa Reagan. I'll give you a hint...I think I'm going to write about MY BIRTHDAY!! Or my love of shopping...or maybe even both! :)

Stay tuned!

Love and other indoor sporting events...

Thanks, Nikki, for the awesome valentine!! Heart you!!

What I'm Listening To: Emma's House by Field Mice

Hey! Sorry I'm late again. I was super sick starting Wednesday, etc. etc. Needless to say, I'm here for you, people. Relax!

Yay! It's Valentine's Day. Day of luuuurrrrve. All kinds of love. Like the kind of love on the front of the latest issue of Out magazine. Yes, we here at Casa Reagan get Out magazine, which is the premier hip and trendy gay men's magazine. (Well, I didn't see any naked ladies in it, so I think it's more geared towards the dick-swingers, seriously. Who does a whole fashion spread focused on Timberland boots...and deck chairs? Yeah, it's a dude magazine.)

Anywhoo, it's our second FREE issue, compliments of some forgetful friend of our home's previous gay tenant who must have ordered it for him as a gift but used his old address by mistake. Sorry dude, you missed him by like, I don't know, FOUR YEARS???

But it's not that we mind. Okay, I particularly don't mind one bit -- uh, what girl doesn't like glossy photos of strapping male models? Not me!! But today, as we ripped off the opaque plastic wrapping of the magazine (like I give a crap if Petey Pothead, our West Allis mailman, sees that we get Out! Might wake him up out of that stoner coma and stop delivering the neighbors' mail to us, right?) we were in for a shock.

Guess who was on the cover? ANDY SAMBERG!!!!

Yes, THAT Andy Samberg. The one on Saturday Night Live. The one who could be your best friend's brother. The one who could go either way on the "who's he gonna go home with" barometer. And my first thought was, "Andy Samberg is GAY!! That is so awesome!!! He's coming OUT!!!" Total excitement! Well, total excitement because frankly, I don't find Andy's brand of looks that attractive. Now, if you told me that Vincent D'Onofrio was gay, well, that's a total new blog. But Andy? I ain't gonna miss him. Buh-bye! The other team is calling!

So I'm ripping through the magazine trying to find the article where Andy announces that he and that MacGruber guy are really lovers, or that Lorne Michaels is really the head of the NYC Gay Mafia (oh, you know there is one, just like in Tales of the City. Who do you think makes all the big "What's In/What's Out" decisions in New York? Carrie Bradshaw? Puhleeese!) and finally I find the article, after like a million clothing and cologne ads featuring Jonathan Rhys Meyers (who IS that guy's agent? He's EVERYWHERE). And I scan through it super quick -- NOTHING! Andy is NOT gay. Sheesh. The article's just about his new movie and how he plays a gay guy who goes after het guys. Whatevs.

I'm so over this. Now what am I gonna do with myself? It figures it was a bait-n-switch. They've got Ellen on the cover of Ladies Home Journal this month, btw. Don't ask why we get that one. The cover has this teaser that says "We made Ellen cry!" like that's something to be proud of. You made a gay icon cry. Nice job. You can imagine my surprise at the lack of an "Ellen goes back in the closet" article in LHJ. But Ellen likes shilling wrinkle cream and mascara to all us unfortunates, that's for sure. Sheesh, isn't she rich enough? Oh well. :)

Anyway, I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentines Day and gets all the lovin' that they richly deserve! You'd think with the plethora of Cialis and Viagra spam I get per hour it'd be Valentines Day every day at the Reagan house. Well, a lady never kisses and tells...okay, maybe next week, if you're good!

Happy V-Day!! :)

Bars, restaurants and the general notion of eating.

What I'm Listening To: Ninja of Love by Freezepop

Last night Jim and I actually went to see a play. This is an event in and of itself, because I really don't like live theater (Like there's a dead theater. ha ha!) Anyway, I wasn't disappointed with my decision to stay away from the bright lights, because the play was really bad. The material was dated, the set was boring and all I could think about as I sat on the world's hardest folding chair (next to the world's most coughing-est woman -- sheesh, stay home when you're sick, people!) was how I could have done a better acting job than the lead actress. I mean, who am I to say I'm a better actress than a woman who, according to her bio in the program, has "two kids, an adorable husband and one neurotic poodle"? Yeah, I'm totally outclassed. But enough about my missed opportunities as this year's Meryl Streep.

Before the play, we went to Yaffa's, a restaurant on Wells that's close to the theater, for free appetizers and drink specials, which was part of the ticket deal. Turns out Yaffa's is closing. I don't know if you've been to Yaffa's before, but it's like a Moroccan-themed restaurant with a great Middle Eastern-tinged menu. We've eaten at Yaffa's a couple times, and it was always tasty, even if the service was a little slow.

Yaffa served these decent if uninspired appetizers last night -- ribs, nachos, and hummus, basically. After two heaping plates of sticky ribs and messy nachos, we were starving for some sugar. And lucky for us, they had just put out some mega-donut holes doused in cinnamon sugar. We all had like three apiece. It was amazing, and of course, the sugar made me all giggly and slap-happy when we got to the theater. After making up three snort-filled songs about our fellow play attendees (uh, no one was under 60, btw) and their various outfits (Mildred, her muumuu and her urinary tract infection were featured predominately in a few of these tunes), I finally settled down to watch this sad tale of woe, love and tomfoolery.

Okay, so back to my original story. Uh, news flash people: As of the end of February, Yaffa's will be turned into a BREW PUB. (Click on the link to learn more) OMG, isn't that the most ORIGINAL IDEA EVER? It's not like there aren't 5 other brew pub/fish fry joints within a two mile radius of Yaffa's. Gee, where'd you get that idea???

You know, Milwaukee's restaurant selection is just boring as hell. I know we are in the middle of one of the worst economic periods in American history, but does that mean that we all just give in and start catering to the lowest common denominator in food? Does losing your job mean that you lose your taste buds, that all people want to eat anymore is a greasy hamburger and fries? I can STILL count on one hand the number of exotic eateries we have in town, and two of them are located in a strip mall. Jeeez, dullsville, hey? And that was BEFORE October.

So what's a nice West Alien to do, huh? When Jim and I decide to take a break from the soy burgers and steamed veggies, I want to have a gastronomic experience to remember for at least a week. A good hour or two of stuffing my gaping maw full of yummy food that's worth my money. I want delicious treats, great service and a nice place to eat it in. But noooooooooooo! I have yet to find the trifecta of restaurant perfection, the balance between price, service and food. It's either the price is too high and the food sucks, or the service is terrible but the food is fantastic, or worst of all, they're out of paper towels in the restroom. Come on, Milwaukee!

I'm sure someone's gonna read this and start reeling off all the fancy, fun, and tasty restaurants I haven't tried yet. Or tell me how great old standbys like Real Chili or Jimmy Johns is like manna from heaven to their parched lips...yeah, at 3 AM, maybe. Whatevs. I'm still on the lookout for "our restaurant", and we've gone to a lot of places around town. But ever since we started watching our waistlines we've stayed home more, so maybe I should just shut up now.

Well, I know you're going to tell me. What's your favorite restaurant, and why? And no offense, but if one more person tells me that they think that the Pasta Tree is the most romantic and awesome restaurant in Milwaukee, please don't waste your breath. I would rather eat a hot dog off the floor of that Judy's Red Hots on Locust than spend a dime at the Pasta Tree. Sorry. :)

PS - We're going to Old Town for Valentine's Day. So there! I heart Serbians!