Marc's 50th

My very good friend Marc Kutner celebrated his 50th birthday tonight. It took some wrangling cause at first he didn't want to celebrate it (like usual). But he finally caved and opted to have it at his favorite restaurant, Max's Wine Dive. So 16 or so of us gathered to honor a good man, father and friend... and yes, there are 50 candles on that cake.

And here they are bringing it out! I just love Rita's expression!!! "Dinner with friends: $75. Homemade carrot cake: $14. Watching your friends recoil from the heat of your candles: Priceless."

And here's the beauty herself! The only thing that Marc asked for was for Pam to bake him his favorite carrot cake, and boy did she deliver. He still likes to tell the story of their first year of marriage when Pam was working a lot of hours at a job in the burbs and stopped to get his carrot cake at a local bakers. The mortification is still palpable 22 years later. Pam and I joked that she should bring one from Moellers again, but we both decided Marc couldn't handle the joke. He agreed.

It was so good to see him having such a good time. He had gone into Max's the week before to pick out the wine he wanted a served, a really nice Pinot, as well as all the appetizers: fried oyster nachos, maccaroni & cheese, short ribs, and scallop sliders. We were all feelin' pretty happy after just that!

And here's a shot of Marc with his siblings who flew in from NY just for the happy occassion. That's his older brother Lenny and younger sister Kim. It was good to see them again. I usually only get to see them at the annual Kutner Crawfish Boil. Lenny's wife Ann also came, but for some reason when my camera got passed for someone to take shots at the other end of the table, there wasn't a picture of her.

I must say this is a really nice picture of Jenny and Lindsay (and Lindsay's boyfriend John). They don't usually look this normal and respectable.

...aaaaaand that's more like it. Thanks, Lindsay!

And thank you, too, Jenny for letting me take a picture of you forever twirling your hair ;-) As an aside, Jenny had a scare earlier this week. Perhaps you heard on the news about the gunman on the UT campus??? Well, Jenny was in class in the building where they thought the suspected second gunman was holed-up. She texted her mother: "gunman on campus" and I can't BEGIN to tell you what a calming effect that had on Pam. Jenny said they were in lockdown in their classroom until the SWAT team came into their room and finally declared it clear. What a day!

This is such a great picture of Pam. Even though I've lost 25 pounds, I still am not happy that I have a second chin. But again, it was such a nice picture off her, I had to include it. She said we made a cute couple ;-) It is, of course, one of my infamous self-portraits. It could be part of why I always have double chins...

I liked this one of me better. As you can see, I got a little sun today. What I'm thankful for is, well, two things. One, that you can't make out the tanline on my forehead from my swimcap. And two, that I can get in this white shirt. It's a shirt I bought on sale last Christmas without trying on for $5. I was too fat. However, after all this training for my first triathlon, I'm in it :-)

And here they are again! Jennifer and Rita are just so fun. Fortunately, I took this photo before Rita had her eyebrows singed off by Marc's cake!! LOL. Rita is a one-year cancer survivor and the two of them spend the morning in the annual Susan G. Komen Race for a Cure. If I'm not mistaken, it was the 20th anniversary and $3 Million dollars were raised! Way to go ladies! Marc asked that instead of gifts, a contribution be made in Rita's honor to the cause. We were all more than happy to do so. And we're all so grateful for Rita's first of many years of being cancer-free!

Another one of my favorite guys: Rick and his wife Mikki. We don't get to see them often enough, but love it when we do. Rick was an amazing friend who helped me out at a real important time of my life when I needed someone to defend me. He did that in spades. Thank you, Rick!

And you all know these two! They were extremely kind and offered to pick me up! I spend sooooo much time in my car that I sometimes forget what its like to be a passenger. They made the evening fun as the restaurant was so loud you could pretty much only talk to whoever was right beside you. Fortunately, they were right beside me. We laughed a lot, like we always do :-)

This is the Grilled Cheese Sandwich & Tomato Soup that Susan (and several others) ordered. The one other time I've been to Max's Wine Dive, I had this and it was divine! Three different melted cheeses (classy cheeses at that!) between two, inch-thick, buttered pieces of bread. No shortage of calories there!!

And no shortage on my plate either! I had the NY Hot Dog with pickles and saurkraut. But no worries! In preparation for all the food and wine I knew I was going to end up consuming, I burned almost 11oo calories in two separate workouts today just for the occassion (hence part of the explanation for my sunburn).

Here's just a fun shot of Pam rockin' her new outfit for Marc's b-day. Sorry, Pam... I should have noticed your eyes were closed and taken a second shot.

And here's a parting shot of Jim and Susan as we waited for the valet to bring Jim's car over from three parking spots away. I think it's so ridiculous when a restaurant has parking right in front of their door and "reserves" those spots for valet. Such a racket.