Crazy Birthday Hats

On the Friday of my birthday (in late September), Jason and I went to the Blue Marlin for dinner. He started with the Thai curried crab soup with lemongrass, which he thought had the perfect balance of rich coconut milk and spicy kick. The rockfish special was buttery and yummy.

Dinner at the Blue Marlin

I started with a salad and had the eponymous blue marlin with roasted red pepper risotto, anchovy croutons, and braised chard. The marlin was a bit too dense and somewhat lacking in flavor, but it was moist. It might be that marlin just isn't my favorite fish. I'd love to go back and try something else.They do need to improve their coffee, though; it was pretty bad.

The waitress was attentive and friendly, but not to the point where she was constantly hovering. And I like the intimate atmosphere with low lighting. It made for a special dinner.

Opening presents! The sexy red dress loses something when paired with an afghan, a shawl, and slippers. :)

On Saturday, a group of us went to Nick's for dinner and then onto the Ivory Room for some piano bar wackiness.

I love JD's eyes in this pic. He looks very surprised.

The next week, Abby, Heath, Brenna, Jim, Mike, and I had pizza and salad, followed by a decadent apricot cake with hazelnut buttercream frosting from La Brioche. That cake was so massive that it was shared multiple times with several different people. We had slivers before the Richard Thompson concert at the Stoughton Opera House, and I took it to work, too.

Fighting Bob Fest + Willy St. Fair

Bernie Sanders

In mid-September, a few of us hopped on over to Fighting Bob Fest at the Alliant Energy Center. We had great seats to hear Cornel West, Bernie Sanders, Thomas Hartmann, and Greg Palast speak.

Cornel West

Later that day, we moseyed around the Willy St. Fair eating, listening to music, and meeting some extraordinary stilt walkers from the World Music Festival.

Dragons and dragonflies at the Willy St. Fair

After hearing rave reviews, I tried the pork curry from The Corner Store's stand. My assessment: just ok. Although it was billed as pork curry, I was hoping that it would also boast some veggies. I hoped in vain. It consisted solely of large chunks of meat in a diluted curry sauce. And instead of brown or jasmine rice, plain white rice was the base. It was a little disappointing, but I might try again, just to be sure.