it really is all about the food, isn't it?

Today my favorite number is 33! It's going to be a good year. I started the week-long birthday celebration on Saturday, giving myself a good head start before the actual date. Jeremy was in town and I pried him out of the apartment for master's swim by promising a delicious lunch at Eclectic that afternoon. After a short bike ride, that is. 

We swam and then played in the pool, giving Damie some great video footage of her swim stroke, as well as of mine, Jeremy's, Nancy's, and Laura's. I have to thank Mary for the feedback for all of us, even me! I'm the one who doesn't pull under my body but has NO problem keeping my legs afloat. I think it's because of the built-in buoy commonly referred to as the derrière. Mine even sticks out of the water. Yeah. So anyway, we promised we would not post any actual video of us on The Internets, but here's a still pic of me getting my filling checked.

So we eventually got our pruny bodies out of the pool and got moving on the bike. It was my second time in a week on my Magnolia, and it was awesome! A bit of headwind slowed us down getting back into town, but the company was awesome and I couldn't complain. 

Then began the champion eating. At Eclectic, I had a $25 gift certificate which J and I HAD to use all of on our lattes, wraps, and brie and pear sandwiches (ok, make that singular). We got home to find a nap more than appealing and snoozed until it was time to get ready for the Melting Pot birthday dinner with my parents. Stuffed again that evening on wine, cheese, salad, veggies and steak, we still couldn't resist the chocolate fondue for dessert. Keeping with our food theme of Birthday Week, my mom gave me my very own mushroom box where I can grow my very own button mushrooms in 14-21 days! I'm a little nervous about keeping the box at the specific temperature with the specific amount of light required. Who knew fungi were so fragile? Nobody who's ever gotten athlete's foot would believe it.

Sunday the big events were a long run and a buffet. We did our two hours around downtown with Nancy, Jerry, and Gigi, and got finished early enough to be in line at Paula Deen's buffet in Tunica by just after 11. Now this is a real study in eating behavior. I could've sat there for hours watching others pile their plates so high that onion rings teetered off the side. Jeremy and I, knowing you only have about 20 minutes to stuff yourself before you start feeling the pain, surveyed the multiple lines then quickly piled up one, and then two plates of golden brown fried-ness. I looked at my plate at one point and realized that besides the greens and butter beans I'd intentionally placed to make myself feel better, everything was either fried or a casserole. But it was delicious! (And well deserved, especially for J, who tried to stop his long run at 1:40 and I dragged back out for 20 more minutes. I still think he'll thank me on race day.) Here's just one of the 6 or 7 buffet lines at Paula's. Look at how lovely and brown it is. 

So now, at this point, I have to stop this post and admit that it is now Thursday, and I am 33 + 2 days. There was plenty more consumption, mostly of alcohol, mostly by me, that occurred on my birthday evening. I had a great time, y'all, and thank you so much! I won't go into much detail, mostly because it's all a little fuzzy to me. But I would like to also thank Apple for making the iphone 3G with a video camera, so that if I ever need to be bribed, Charlie and Laura should have plenty of good footage. 


Happy Birthday to me!