Jazz Birthday

My DH and I went to Jazz Alley (http://www.jazzalley.com/) on Tuesday to celebrate his birthday. Tuck and Patti (http://www.tuckandpatti.com/) were the headliners, and they are an amazing duo. He's a phenomenon with a guitar, and she's got a voice that melts my heart. It was their rendition of My Romance that I always associate with falling in love with my sweet husband.

I used to see T&P for free when I lived in Berkeley in the late 70's. They would play during happy hour at a bar my friends and I frequented, and I loved them even then. I have to pay more to see them, but they are so very worth it.

Dinner at Jazz Alley is often wonderful, but I didn't order the right thing on Tuesday. They had a special salad - wild salmon over a salad of apples, fennel, and mixed greens with a citrus dressing. Had I made it at home, I'd have seared the salmon to medium rare, and put the warm filet over the top of the dressed salad. What came at the restaurant, though, was a slab of cold salmon over an uninspired salad - no hint of citrus in the dressing. Yuk. I did take the salmon home, since it's in a good state to be used with cream cheese, capers, red onion and bagels...but it was lousy for dinner. What a shame. We each had the soup of the day, which was a vegetarian tomato-basil soup, and we asked for some Parmesan to sprinkle on top. That was quite good. But they changed their by-the-glass pinot grigio, and that was not great. I switched to a pinot noir from California (no Oregon pinot noirs on the wine list - at least by the glass) and it was quite good. So, I didn't have much dinner, but I did have some good wine.

Next week, we're off to San Francisco to see my sister and her family for Thanksgiving. We'll also visit with friends in SF and Sonoma - and I'll get to see my Godmother for the first time in years!

We've got a week already packed with activities, including a celebration for my Mother-in-law's birthday. I just love her, contrary to the standard jokes about MILs, she's the best! We're going to see Australia (the movie, not the country) and I hope we get to the De Young museum and the new Jewish museum in the city. I'll enter updates either while I'm away or as soon as I get back.