A 5-star birthday celebration....spitting, unfortunately, not optional

I turned 33 on Saturday. Where does the time go?? Josh and I met just before my 25th birthday! What a wonderful 8+ years we have had together. We never imagined our lives to be as blessed as it is, especially with Sophia.

Celebrations began on Friday when my colleagues surprised me with a birthday lunch at a new 5-star restaurant called Domus. It is in a renovated courtyard filled with fine, gorgeous Italian furniture. The owners of the restaurant area also the distributors of this furniture. We had a delicious eight course meal in one of the nicely appointed interiors I can recall. We were visiting the restaurant for a look-see for an event to launch one of our new phones in the coming months.

On Saturday, Josh and I went to the spa where I was finally able to use my mother's day spa treatment certificate. I joked that Josh got lucky that he could kill two birds with one stone! We also treated ourselves to a wonderful meal at Daniel Boulud's new restaurant in Beijing, Maison Boulud. You can read more about the restaurant, the location and check out the menu at http://www.maisonboulud.com/. It is located in Legation Quarter, next to Tiananmen Square. The interiors were designed by the same designers as The Gramercy Park Hotel and the actual restaurant is located in the former American Embassy building during the Qin Dynasty in 1903. We were also told Kissinger and Zhou Enlai met secretly in that building. Of course, when we were at the current Ambassador's residence we were also told they met there. Maybe they met in several locations. Anyway, it was a delicious meal, topped off with warm madeline cookies and chocolates at the end of the meal.

Just as I was commenting to Josh that I felt like we were in London and not Beijing, a Chinese couple walked in and started complaining to the staff that they didn't like their table. They spoke very loudly and rudely to the staff and needed explanations on the menu. When they came across the cheese platter option, we overheard the waiter ask the guy if he knew what cheese was! We chuckled at that and enjoyed our meal, until the woman dug deeply in her chest and expelled a loogi that is worthy of any coal miner. Then she proceeded to let the loogi hang out of her mouth and shockingly she had the courtesy of spitting it into a napkin. This happened not once, but four times at that table. It was appalling.

Spitting aside, we had a terrific evening of uninterrupted adult conversation and superb food. We topped off the evening by checking ourselves into the JW Marriott and sleeping in until 7:45 the next morning! Even though we were stuffed silly from Maison Boulud, we managed to enjoy the buffet brunch before heading home to see Sophia. It was her first night where neither of us was with her. Not surprisingly, Sophia survived!

It was the perfect celebration. Thanks to all who sent birthday greetings! Now we start our weeklong National Day holiday. We are sticking around Beijing and have many chores on the list. We'll keep you updated on our progress throughout the week! We are also looking forward to the Palin/Biden debate!