Day after Mark's birthday.

The weather for the concert by Jose Feliciano on Sunday was cold and rainy and damp, yet we enjoyed his guitar playing. I have to say his voice is sounding a bit old. Still, we enjoyed getting together with Barbara and Al for the concert as well as dinner at Mimi's.

Despite his cold still dragging him down, Mark enjoyed his birthday yesterday. We had a bit of a rush in the morning to get out to a Coffee Talk 9 a.m. lecture in the ballroom. This month's topic was water management. It sounded dry, but in fact, the speaker was quite interesting. We felt we learned a lot about the water management systems in Florida, and he gave us all a water gauge to take home for the yard to measure rainfall. Cool!

We then drove off to pick up Mark's comic books. This usually takes five minutes, but they were very crowded and had only one clerk. The twenty minutes that it took yesterday made us late for our lunch reservation at the Brown Derby. We were supposed to arrive at 12:45 for our 12:55 reservation. Instead we arrived at 1:15 and were not seated until 1:35. Still, once we got in there, we had fun waiting in the lobby. There are caricatures of famous performers from the early days of Hollywood in the lobby. These are copies of the ones in the original Brown Derby restaurant in CA.

The food was expensive, which we knew before we got there, but it was very tasty. Mark had grouper and I had a tofu noodle bowl. We both had the recommended wine pairings with them. Mine was a Fess Parker Reisling, which I actually enjoyed. Then they surprised Mark with a candle in a little chocolate mousse. We sang Happy Birthday to him. It was very cool. I ordered the signature dessert, Grapefruit Cake. I never eat grapefruit anymore because of the statin drugs, but the description said it was yellow cake with grapefruit flavor in the cream cheese icing. It was way better than that description sounds, but I still don't think that amount of grapefruit could upset my drugs.

Mark had wanted to ride a few of his favorite things, like Star Tours, and I wanted to hit a few shows we never get around to, like Indiana Jones and Little Mermaid. NOPE! Too crowded. We were shocked at the crowd. It was every bit as crowded as the worst summer day, but at least it wasn't hot. Fast passes, if they were left, were for too late in the day, and the lines were ridiculously long. Showtimes weren't convenient either. So we just walked around and took pictures of Mark looking shocked at the wait times. It was pretty fun. We ran into several street performances and watched some of them for a bit. Then it was time to head out.

As we were leaving, I was asked to complete a laptop survey on our dining experience. I had been asked to do something similar in Disneyland once, so now I'm complete! That was fun, too.

When we got back to Solivita, we had just enough time to go to the Marketplace Bistro and have Mark's favorite veggie flatbread for dinner. Then I was able to walk across the street to my rehearsal, and Mark went home to relax. When I got home, he opened his presents. What a day!

One amusing thing about the lunch was the price of the wine. Last year, when he turned 60, I took him to Raglan Road, the Irish restaurant at Downtown Disney, and bought him a $60 shot of whiskey. I was pretty sure there wasn't going to be one item for $61 this year, but the wine was $16. We joked about how it was an expensive five ounces of wine, and if we reversed the digits, it would be 61. Close enough!

I am not looking forward to seeing the scale tomorrow. My eating has been pretty out of control. I have gained weight the last several weeks, and I'm pretty sure tomorrow will be another big gain. Yikes. I don't seem to be able to put the brakes on anymore. I know I'm whining, but this is my blog so I can say whatever I want. LOL!