I had a very good birthday yesterday, thanks very much for asking.

With the baby at daycare, Matt and I lounged around the house doing nothing much in particular until 11. ("I keep looking at the baby monitor and wondering when she's going to wake up before I remember she's at school," Matt confessed. Funny, I'd been doing the same thing.)

Then we went out to lunch at Soya, the local hibachi place. Turns out they don't do the show at lunchtime, but you can still get hibachi-cooked food. Our waitress was this little motherly Japanese lady. And when I say "motherly"...

"This miso soup," she said, setting bowls in front of Matt and I. "Made from soybean. I tell kids, 'This make you get handsome and smart.' So you eat! You be pretty and smart!" (Periodically, throughout the meal, I'd look up at Matt and say, "Am I pretty and smart yet?")

When she came to take away the soup bowls and bring the salad, she found us holding hands across the table. "Dit-dit-dit!" she said cheerfully, waving our hands out of her way. "Very sweet! Go back to, later!"

When she came to clear the salad plates: "Aaaaaah! You eat all soup and salad! Very good!"

While we were waiting for Matt's sushi, we went back to holding hands. People kept coming out of the kitchen to perform inexplicable tasks while staring at us (the only customers in the place) and annoying the sushi chef. "I think she's sending them out to look at us," I told Matt. "You go see! Lovebirds! Very sweet!"

Before the sushi arrived, she brought Matt a drink refill. "No-no-no!" she chattered, reaching over our hands for his empty glass. "You no mind me!"

The sushi arrived, and she set the tray down, then turned it carefully. "Yes," I joked, "he can have the wasabi."

"No," she corrected, "this side [opposite the wasabi and ginger garnishes] is front of tray. Must face the lady! You no like wasabi? You put tiny - tiny - bit on top of this [yellowtail sushi roll]. Then you taste wasabi, but not hot! Just tiny bit! Very good!"

The main course arrived, prettily arranged on square plates with a smaller divided dish for the two sauces. I shifted mine slightly, and she reached over to move it back for me, fussing with it until it rested on the plate just so.

While we were eating our main courses Matt said, "I'm sorry you didn't get your hibachi show for your birthday."

"It's okay," I said. "The waitress made up for it."

After lunch, we went to see The Incredibles. I'm not sure if I agree with Braz that it's the best Pixar movie to date, but it was definitely very, very good. (I thought the short at the beginning was just a little bit disappointing, though. Not nearly as funny as, say, The Birds or Gerry's Game. But still better than the short with the toys, which I didn't care for much at all.)

But the movie itself was really awesome.

(One day, Pixar is going to come up with a movie that just doesn't do much for me, and my whole world will probably be crushed. Until then, I'll continue joyously collecting every Pixar movie on DVD for multiple re-viewings.)

Since it was 4:00 by the time we left the theater, we went straight up to Penny's daycare to pick her up. Our evening was relatively normal - play with the baby, feed the baby, put the baby to bed, etc. Matt made dinner, which is starting to become his regular thing on Tuesdays anyway. He'd offered to take me out again, but Penny was tired enough to make that chancy, and anyway eating out twice in one day seemed a little over the top.

(He offered to run out for a birthday dessert, anyway, but I expect to have cake and ice cream at my parents' on Saturday anyway, so instead I just had half of a gourmet chocolate bar that had been included with my present from Karen.)

I got phone calls from Matt's dad and my grandmother, which was nice, too. And e-mail from Dumbchick, who is awesome and funny and not remotely dumb, and whose site I keep forgetting to add to my other journals page, even though I've got it bookmarked at home.

So, to summarize: Great birthday. YAY! and THANK YOU! to everyone who sent e-mail or presents or just said "Happy birthday" when they saw me on IM. And if you ever feel the need for a little Japanese mothering, have lunch at the Soya and ask for Judy. Though I'm still waiting on that whole "pretty and smart" deal.

--Liz