A birthday break...

Today is my 31st birthday and what a great birthday weekend it was!

A great dinner followed by salsa dancing with friends on Friday night. Last night we took a break from painting the guest room to go out for a nice birthday dinner at a hip new restaurant called The Boiler Room. For those of you who think Omaha is all cow pastures and tornados, check this out:



The Boiler Room - which got its name because the space was an actual boiler room (clever, yes?) - is in a brick warehouse in the Old Market District, a very cool area of town reminicent of the meat packing district in New York, and full of boutiques, bars and restaurants. (another crowd pleaser, The Twisted Fork, where the house specialty is fried pickles...SO GOOD, I kid you not.)

The restaurant is ultra hip, has an amazing seasonal menu full of unique ingredients (we started with pork rillettes...sort of like pork pate...amazing) and a great wine list. I can't pronounce the name of the wine I had (hint: NOT Boone's Farm) but it was fabulous.



Here's a picture of dessert...because I often photograph my food (don't ask):



Mr. P gave me some great presents - the first of which was the Domino Book of Decorating:



Holy cow is this book great! So many ideas! I love it! You must run out and buy it! (click on the book cover to order it on Amazon and feel as tasteless and unhip as I do when I see other people's ultra cool designs!)

But the best present was a new home remodeling assistant:



Meet Magnus Von Pooperschnitzel III. You can call him Magnus. We got him from the Little White Dog Rescue group (he had been living in an Arkansas puppy mill) He likes having his chin scratched, Milk Bones and, oh yeah, passing gas. He does some light drywalling:



And some painting:



Sigh...it's really had to find good help these days.