He worked until around 4PM (but got the evening off his part time night job) so we had mom meet us at the house around 4:30 so we could all drive together.
Surprisingly didn't hit major traffic craziness on our way to Royal Oak. 696 was almost completely clear of traffic jamminess. Had a minor flashback when Kevin got turned around in RO and we had to drive back to Main Street. Made me think of when Chicken and I saw the Femmes there in 2006 and had to drive around for what felt like HOURS trying to find a parking spot. (can you believe it's been almost 2 years!?!)
Anyway, we parked at the Main Art Theatre and walked over to Little Tree for dinner. MMMMMM SUSHI!!!
We ordered a bunch too. Some Salmon, Tuna and Red Snapper nigiri
And some maki as well
(clockwise from the top: pickled ginger, unagi & avocado, Godzilla roll (I can't remember everything in it, but it had soft shell crab, tuna, avocado and eel sauce...really good!), chili tuna (chili paste, tuna and garlic), wasabi and mackerel)
We had veggie tempura to start, which was yummy! and hot sake to go with everything (mom had lemonade made with baby lemons) I really wanted Thai iced tea, but it was Kevin's bday so we split the sake. Which turned out to be mmm-mmm good too.
The place started to fill up right after we got our tempura. By the time we got our sushi it was almost packed. We got there just in time apparently! And the sushi was fabulous! of course you can't go wrong with nigiri ... just simple fish and rice (and in the case of the snapper some SERIOUS wasabi! you can see it under the fish in the pic). The rolls were heavenly tho! The mackerel was a bit strong ... I wouldn't have it as nigiri or sashimi ... but as maki with scallions it was perfect! And the chili tuna maki was almost as yummy as poke (which as you know is my favorite!)
(from the last time we had poke @ Sushi house)
The Godzilla roll was decent, but it's not really my thing cuz soft shell crab kinda freaks me out. Kevin loves it and since it was his birfday .... I think he had like 4 pieces of the Godzilla lol.
After dinner we walked back over to the Main Art and I made a delightful discovery! See, a couple of months ago (give or take a week) a friend of mine had given me a winter coat that didn't fit her. When she gave it to me it wasn't that cold so the fact that it fit except for that I couldn't zip it up was no problem (altho it was discouraging to me that I was too fat to zip up a damn coat)
But it was damn cold yesterday so I figured I'd give it a try. Lo and behold .... IT ZIPPED *insert heavenly music here* And this was after gorging ourselves on sushi!!!! I could not have asked for a better surprise! YAY!!!
We went to the theatre and saw "El Orfanato" (The Orphanage) and I must say I was completely blown away! I am madly in love with Guillermo del Toro as a filmmaker anyway (see The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth) but I was a little concerned since he was Producer on this one and not director. Combine that with the review I read right before we left that it was "in the vein of The Others" and I was worried beyond belief. I knew da banshee had given it a fabulous review (she wouldn't tell me much more than "bring kleenex") but Kevin HATED "The Others" (even tho I thought it was brilliant)
I had no reason to be even the slightest bit concerned. The movie went above and beyond expectations. The young director was clearly inspired by del Toro's other works and it showed. The story was captivating and the suspense kept me on the edge of my seat almost the entire time. And da banshee wasn't lying about needing kleenex. Had I not been in public I'm sure I would have ruined all my makeup by sobbing like an idiot.
The story is basically about a woman who lived part of her life in an Orphanage which specialized in handicapped children and returns years later with her husband and son to live there and help take care of handicapped children herself. Her son has invisible friends already and meets more when they explore the house and it's surroundings. They get a mysterious visitor who isn't what they think and soon after their son is missing. In their search for their son things aren't all what they seem.
It is a ghost story. and it does have some cliche "make you jump" parts. My mom even screamed early on in the movie. As I am a horror movie fanatic I enjoyed it immensely, but even if you weren't a fan of horror movies I think you would enjoy it. Very suspenseful, very imaginative and very VERY well done.
And both Kevin and my mom enjoyed it too. Plus it was awesome seeing a movie in a foreign language I could actually almost completely understand without reading subtitles. ^_^
Afterwards we digested the movie and made our way to the Box for some adult beverages (had to milk the free drinks for the bday boy) and some karaoke. I did "You're So Vain" for the bday boy cuz he asked me too. Usually I screw that one up royally but I managed to get thru it and got some decent applause. I also did "Murder by Numbers" for the first time on karaoke EVER and I must say I didn't do too badly. Sadly it's not listed on singsnap or simsonstage ... which means that when I get my mic from Chicken (THANK YOU!) it won't be one of my recordings. So you just have to take my word for it.
We still got home at a reasonable hour cuz hubby had to work this morning. He had left his cell phone at home so he checked it for missed calls or messages but sadly not one of his family members called him to wish him a happy bday. I'm still mad at them about that.
In spite of that, he told me it was the best bday he's ever had. YAY!!!!!
