Prone to nervousness

I think my cat gets anxious overnight.
I lock him out of the bedroom. If I don't, he climbs all over the headboard, knocks over lamps and generally does whatever he can to keep me awake.
He can also open the door to the bedroom unless I lock it. It has a handle instead of a knob.
He pulls down on it and lets himself in.
If it is locked, he will just stand there jiggling the handle for hours. Really. Hours.
Sometimes if he is really bad I put him in the bathroom on the other side of the house before I even go to bed. Sometimes I get up in the night and put him there.
Mind you, it is not that big a house. But this is the most amount of distance I can get from my bedroom.
He has his cat bed. He has water. He has a box of litter.
Last night I opted to give him the benefit of the doubt and did not lock him up.
He starts meowing at about 5 :30 a.m.
Loudly.
MEOW!
MEOW!
MEOOOOOOOOWWWW!
I know what he wants.
He wants food.
But he is too fat and he is on a very limited diet.
So I let him cry.
I drift in and out of sleep in between his wailing.
Finally, at about 8:30, I get out of bed.
I open my bedroom door to find three of his toys (lion, rat and fish) scattered in the short hallway.
He was playing.
I have found a toy there in the past.
They usually live in a box near the fireplace in the living room.
But I think when he gets nervous or anxious, he plays.
It cracks me up every time I get up in the morning and find toys outside my door.
Like he is leaving me offerings in the night.

Thirty-something

Yes. Yesterday was my birthday.
As I get older, I look at these less with an eye toward hoopla and more with an eye toward, eh.
I don't fret too much about the number of years.
I think I fret more about what I have and have not accomplished in the number of years.
This year I chose to work on my birthday.
Really, it was a Tuesday. Working was fine.
I had a bit of a drawn out birthday.

Sunday: I spent the day cleaning house.
Manfriend took me to dinner for Fancy Food in Manhattan Beach. We went to Cafe Pierre. I had been wanting to go there for a while, and seeing them on the L.A. Magazine list of the 75 best restaurants pushed to in that direction.
It was good. A little pretentious for a place that is steps from the beach. Not cheap.
I had the wild Arctic char, which is one of my favorite types of fish. It is not that common on menus here. It was perfectly cooked and the buerre blanc sauce with chives was a nice touch. Not too heavy. Not too creamy. But it had some substance.
Manfriend had the poulet moutarde. Yeah. Mine was better. Basically he had some tiny chicken with mustard sauce.
I may try to replicate that at home. But with real chicken, not the petite poulet.
We skipped dessert there and opted for take-out cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory: Godiva chocolate cheesecake.
And port. At home. It was nice.

Monday: Cinco de Mayo. Refer to post below this one. I cooked. Manfriend came over for dinner.
Before he left for the night he gave me my gift. I waited to open it until my actual birthday. Which means I opened it at about 2 minutes past midnight.
He got me... knives.
And yes, this made me happy. It is a set of four Wusthof brand steak knives.
For those who do not covet such things, these are NICE.
I have been buying prep knives, one at a time, for a while now. They are all Wusthof.
I don't want a big butcher-block set of knives. I just want the ones I know I will use a lot.
So I have the large Santoku, the small Santoku, a 9-inch bread knife and a smaller serrated knife.
And now four of my eight lovely steak knives.
He got the brand right, he got the style right. They are a perfect and thoughtful gift. Thoughtful knives.

Tuesday: Yes, I worked. There was no hoopla at work. Mostly because I didn't tell people "Hey, Look At Me! It's My Birthday! Celebrate Me!"
After work I went to the manfriend's place. We went to a favorite local place, had some tacos and shared a pitcher of beer.
It was a great, easy way to end the day.

Next Sunday: My mom and sister are planning a barbecue for me and my aunt (who also had her birthday yesterday).

So. Another year older. Another good year, all-in-all.
I hope I can say the same thing next year at this time.

No, I have not forgotten how to cook

I know it must seem like I have not cooked anything in ages since I usually post here when I fix a nice dinner.

I have fixed some nice dinners. Just nothing new. Or nothing special or interesting enough to warrant a post.

Until last night.

I made red snapper Vera Cruz style. Which basically means fish cooked with onions and tomatoes.

That was my Mexican food tribute to Cinco de Mayo.