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Many of you wished me a very Happy Birthday yesterday, and it only contributed to the Most Fantastically Perfect Birthday Ever!  Yes, it was that good.  I somehow got duped into a surprise Happy Birthday Lunch, which was fantastic.  My dad gave me a rose, my sister gave me the Coolest Present Ever! (which will be discussed at a later date, I promise), and the restaurant put candles in the brownie dessert.  My entire company sang me Happy Birthday, complete with cake and balloons; my favorite group of high school kids surprised me with cake and chocolate hugs and kisses and Dr. Pepper with fresh lime… awww, they were so cute!  There’ s just something about 17-year olds that always makes me smile… in a “I’m so glad I don’t have to always be responsible for you” kind of way.

But, the best part of my birthday all happened last night.  Handsome V told me that we had dinner reservations at 6:30 and that I should wear a dress.  Something Fancy!  You can imagine the excitment; it’s not every day a girl gets to wear “something fancy” out on a date!  I probably spent 3 hours  a good half-hour the other day trying on dresses and picking out the one I liked the best and deciding on my shoes.  (Ended up going with the black and white pointy-toe ones.) 

Now, I realize that today is Valentine’s Day, and I realize that a lot of people either don’t believe in Valentine’s Day or despise it’s “Single Awareness Day” blahs.  To you: I am not trying to make you throw up, although the next few paragraphs may be a bit mushy and if you already feel nauseous you may want to skip this post completely.  I’m just sayin’, you’ve been warned.

Alright, now back to The Story.  Handsome told me he wanted me to open my present before we went to dinner, so before we braved the completely crazy blizzard  six inches of freshly-fallen snow, he handed me my birthday present.  A birthday present that came in a little blue box, and not just any little blue box, but a particular shade of blue box.  Before you all get carried away in your ideas, calm down a little and take a look at what was inside…

That’s right, an absolutely gorgeous sparkly necklace.  Coincidentally, a necklace that matches the sparkly bracelet a certain Handsome person gave me for Christmas.  Yes, I swooned!  And I smiled; a lot; and I’m still smiling.  I kind of feel like I’m in a fairy-tale, or a movie or something.  Real people don’t get little blue boxes with sparkly jewelry, do they?  Particularly when you take into account that the closest store to pick up something sparkly in a little blue box is over 400 miles away! 

Alright, I’ll skip over the exact details of what happened next… but soon enough we were on the road (the INCREDBILY snowy and quite scary road) towards La Caille which is consistently listed as one of, if not the most fabulous restaurant in the state.  La Caille is a French restaurant housed in a gorgeous chateau on acres and acres of gardens.  Picture this; but covered in about a foot of white, fluffy snow and still falling.  (By the time we got to the restaurant it was far too dark to take any pictures, plus I didn’t want to stand outside in the cold and the snow and the wet hoping to get that perfect shot.  I had a date to go on people!  So Google images are just gonna have to cut it.)

There are people who think La Caille is completely over-priced with teeny portions of so-so food.  Those people are clearly dillusional.  Sure, the portions are small when compared to a Super-Sized McMeal.  But there are six courses of portions, and by the end of the night we were both perfectly satisfied without being overstuffed.  And whoever says the food is only mediocre was crazy.  My meal was absolutely fantastic.  From the fresh French bread -still warm- and crab cake appetizers all the way to the perfectly sweet and tangy creme brulee.  Absolute perfection. 

I ordered two dishes last night that a) I have never tasted before and b) would probably never order in any other restaurant.  For my main course I ordered duck with pommegranate sauce, and it was absolutely divine.  That choice was not necessarily daring, lots of people eat duck.  It kind of tastes like the dark-meat from turkey.  However, this next one?  It’s daring.

Handsome lived in France for a couple of years (yes, he speaks French… can he get any more dreamy?) and as soon as he saw escargot on the menu he got all excited and insisted that I would like to eat cooked snails.  I admit, I was skeptical.  But hey, if Isabel and Mrs. Squirrell can tell the internet about all the new things they are consistently doing; I figured I could swallow little slippery things smothered in butter and garlic and then share with all of you, right?

I kind of felt like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman when she goes to the fancy restaurant and is trying to figure out how to eat snails… it takes a second to get the hang of those tongy-pincher things.  And the teeny fork?  It’s really teeny!  My conclusion on the escargot; they look like Jurrassic boogers that haven’t been petrified yet.  They taste quite a bit like garlic butter (shocker!  I know!) and have the consistency of slightly undercooked mushrooms.  A little bit chewy, a little bit squishy.  And I only had to battle the “eew!  this used to be crawling around in the dirt!” apprehensions on the first one; the others were quite tasty.  (Garlic and butter will make EVERYTHING taste better; creepy-crawlies included.)

Snow, Sparkly Necklace, Snails and the most adorable boy on the planet.  Yep, all-in-all, this was the best birthday ever.  Hope you all have a Happy Valentine’s Day!  xox