And so my birthday came and went yesterday. A little anti-climactic after last year’s trip to Napa Valley, but then again it isn’t every year you turn forty. On the bright side I’m now 41 which means, um, it’ll be a prime year for me?

Anyway, takaza gave me my birthday gifts on Tuesday night. First was a book that I had come across and really enjoyed flipping through at the bookstore, The Making of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman. Tucked in among the pages was a card labeled “But wait, there’s more…” And so there was – a note informing me that I have been signed up for a 6-hour class on knife skills and butchering. This is awesome – while I can get by with knives in the kitchen, I feel a bit clunky with them sometimes. I’m excited that I’ll get to find out how to use them right.

Oh, and I really need to get my knives sharpened again (and I know where to go to get them done properly this time).

Last night we celebrated my birthday with dinner with friends. We had a lovely meal with roho, genet, linnaeus, daveqat, and jimcyl at Emmett’s Tavern in Palatine. I had a great selection of beers and the food was quite tasty. The downside is that I paid for those beers later when a nasty bit of reflux kicked in at about 2:30 AM this morning. I didn’t really get back to sleep after that and so I’ve been dragging badly all day. I may hit the grocery store after work, or I may go home and grab a nap. We’ll see how it goes, I guess.