Only a few days left

Today I turned another day and year older. I'm now 39. This is my last year in my 30's so I better make it a good one. It started off pretty well because we went to Brad's Swingside Cafe for dinner tonight. I'm so glad we were able to make it there one last time before we leave. Brad's is a very small Italian cafe. It's hot inside and the bread plates always have a little bit of dirt on them (I think of this as a bit of charm, similar to Petit Louis in Baltimore where the mashed potatoes are always cold). Despite this, it was rated the best Italian in Seattle and I'd have to agree with them. Tonight, I had the most amazing dish - and considering I don't even like Italian food - that says something.

Aglio Olio

My pasta was supposedly the dish that made the restaurant famous: garlic and dried, smoked peppers strained into a mixture of capers, tomatoes, anchovies and dry marsala, topped with herbs, ground hazelnuts, Pecorino Romano, and some local crab claw meat. I truly think it was the best pasta I've had outside of Emilia-Romagna

For dessert we came home and had Trophy cupcakes, which the kids and I bought earlier in the day. Again, Trophy cupcakes are the best bakery cupcakes I've experienced. I let the kids have a cupcake in the afternoon; they were thrilled. Both the kids eat a cupcake like an ice cream cone. They hold the cake and lick off the icing. Genna even called it the "ice cream" instead of "icing" a couple of times. Genna then tells me she's full and gives me the cake part of the cupcake.  Jonah will usually take a bit or two of the cake and then say he's "finished."

These really are the best

Jonah had chocolate

Pure happiness

Genna had chocolate with vanilla icing

I will definitely miss the restaurants in Seattle, but the weather I will not miss - although I did have to take off my sweater this afternoon (only to put it back on later when it started raining at the playground).

Everyone had a fabulous dinner - even the kids were great and ate every bit of their bow-tie pasta