Yesterday was Carrie's 23rd birthday so I hustled home from Minneapolis on a well before dawn flight through my favorite place on earth - O'Hare International in route to get to Tampa. I was in Minneapolis for some company meetings mixed in with some local clients we work with. So our days were pretty packed from morning into the evenings. I mention this because on Wednesday night I had dinner with a large group at a trendy restaurant downtown called Seven. We had a cocktail reception followed by an array of choices from sushi to steak. I wanted to make sure we celebrated Carrie's birthday with some sort of style because she was a solo parent and after all one only turns 23 once in a lifetime.
Carrie, being the doting wife that she is decided against getting a babysitter because I hadn't seen Quentin since Saturday and she wanted to make sure we got to spend some time together before he hit the sack. That was thoughtful of her on her birthday. Carrie is a big fan of the Mexican so it's May 6th and we are heading out to our favorite Mexican restaurant. Because we are getting older, me much older than my considerably younger 23 year old wife, we spaced the fact that cinco de drinko or as some like to call it cinco de mayo was the night before. The outdoor patio, which we prefer, was still trashed from the rager the day before. The difference is the experience is too authentic inside. No one speaks English. Outside we have friends that bartend and waiter so we like to visit with them while we are out there. Slight problemo. So inside it was with our authentic exhausted unenthused waiter. It's okay. It's nice to be home. It's nice to celebrate my wife's 23rd birthday and it's nice to be there as a family.
What I had forgotten is the difference of having dinner with colleagues at Seven and having dinner at authentic Mexican restaurant with an 18 month old. The milk got spilled on his head. The tortilla got thrown at our table neighbors. We did say hi to everyone in the whole place, though. The speed of service was exquisite. The tipping really goes above and beyond when you leave that kind of a mess behind. When the table is cleaner than the floor you need to add a little to the typical 15-20%. They should make tip calculators with a special family button. 50% - now we're talking. So the food was good and after we finished abusing our waiter we went next door to Cold Stone for some ice-cream. Junior isn't there yet to consume, so he just admired the pretty colors in the display case and then made sure he told everyone in the store hi and good-bye upon leaving.
It was a good night. We were rewarded by junior waking up at 2:30 am and not going back to sleep. So we were afforded the opportunity to finish off that birthday with 3 hours of looping Sportscenter loud enough to drown out the screaming from our beautiful son that absolutely refuses to sleep before rising for what could only be a glorious Friday of work. Well, that and the lawn guys cut my phone line while installing the sprinkler system. It's not important, it's only business. So if you get my voicemail don't leave a message because I'm not going to get it anytime soon. Our lawn does look fantastic though. I hope they are not going to tear it back out to install my phone again. Cringe. Turning 23 is nothing like turning 22 my wonderful wife tells me. Next up - Mother's Day. I think we are skipping the brunch. I can already envision my son chucking shrimp all over rich people. They don't remember what it was like to have little kids. When they do give the dirty looks we simply adjust his aim .
Here is a short video of Q working on his somersault technique.
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