Birthday brother

Not to discount the celebrations of friends in the first two months of  the year, but March and April see a flurry (or, perhaps, a fury!) of birthdays within my circle of friends.  My work anniversary also happens to coincide with my brother's birthday.  Instead of some of my bubble thoughts about the former, however, I have chosen to share some photos of the birthday dinner.

The night started off casually enough, with friends *just happening* to stop by my brother's place.  He was innocently happy to see his friends dropping by, on his birthday no less, while his girlfriend, Jaxs, opening the door and welcoming all, whispered, "He'll get it sooner or later."

It took the gathering to reach nearly a dozen people for him to realize that it was not simply happenstance, and once the light bulb went on we were off to West Hollywood, where dinner reservations awaited.  Her first choice, a place called Gjelina, having difficulty accommodating our entire party, Jaxs chose a place called Jones Cafe.

It was an interesting place:  a mixture of a pretty happening bar area (esp. for a weeknight, and in this economy!), and a pretty good restaurant.  The crowd was eclectic, with parties from older families to young artsy-types.  I guess our group added to the mix, too!

The food was much better than I'd expected.  The decor made the restaurant look like a pizza place, but the menu was much more extensive.  We tasted a range of dishes, from spaghetti with homemade meatballs to salmon to pizza; and I ordered the red snapper evening special.  Delish!

      

We topped the night off passing around the birthday dessert: apple pie.  But it was all about the brown sugar and butter drizzled all around the plate, plus the vanilla ice cream.  *da bomb*

It's over a week later and I still haven't even gone out to get the gift I've been wanting to give my brother.  Lots has been happening on all fronts--my own birthday celebration included!  Back with more in a bit!

Happy birthday, G'zilla!