Melissa's Birthday Spectacular

Hurray for Birthdays that fall on long weekends! This year my birthday fell on Memorial day, and we actually had a four day weekend (more on that later). Dave started off the day by getting me this beautiful bouquet of Anthurium (one of my favorite flowers, native to Hawaii) and tiger lilies:

Dave and I went to a fabulous French restaurant called Absynt and let their friendly staff stuff us with a decadent seven course meal. Menu items included Escargot, salad with duck and strawberries, salmon, and cheese (and much more!). We also had a bottle of wine from Alsace. My mother send me a beautiful antique hot chocolat set that was hand painted. The little cups are so delicate. This has received a front and center spot in our china hutch.

Dave's parents were also overly generous and sent me a Kitchen Aide that I have been coveting. It's got a motor large enough to run a small Polish car. I can use it to make my faovorite candy - divinity and meringue cookies.

Finally, the reason I got Friday off (in addition to Memorial Day), is the Pope came to visit Poland. On Friday, in honor of the Pope's mass, the Polish government shut down. Whenever the Polish government doesn't work, neither do we.

We were still up and running on Thursday when the Pope arrived. His motorcade route went directly in front of my work building, and I was able to go out and actually see the Pope go by in his famous Pope mobile. Unfortunately, I didn't think far enough ahead to bring my camera with me to work, so instead I'm borrowing a photo from a major news outlet: