First Birthday

Jennifer already blogged about Magda's 1st Birthday, so I won't be repeating myself. We had a good time with good company, but while the cake Jfer made was tasy, it was too healthy to be worthy of a Birthday (just IMHO) and I'm planning to do bake something more sinful next year.

The best part of the Birthday weekend, as far as I am concerned, was that Grandma Rita came to visit and allowed Jennifer and me to have two dates by ourselves!

On Sunday, we got to take off to the movies to see Serenity. Whenever Jfer goes out of town, I usually catch a flick, but this was the first time for her to the movies since Magda was born (not counting a couple of Crying Babies Tuesday's at The Alamo). It was a bit surreal -- we used to go see movies on an almost weekly basis, and being there again seemed strangely familiar yet I fell "out of practice". Anyway, as expected Serenity kicked butt. BTW, while the movie stands on its own, I'd recomend people to see the Firefly series, first. It makes the movie more engrossing and the ending more shocking.

On Monday night, Jennifer and I got to go out again, this time to see Il Travatore at the Austin Lyric Opera. It was a good enough performance -- but while I know it shouldn't matter, the lead soprano just didn't look the part of someone two guys would obsess about so much. An unusual part was the staging -- a very minimalist raised stage with a couple of stairs and some creative lighting of the background. The ALO stages are usually quite involved, but the one they were going to use for this piece came from the New Orleans Opera and got damanged by Katrina. I definitely liked what they ended up doing, though.

Before the opera, Jfer and I did appetizers and drinks at Reed's Jazz & Supper Club. The drinks were fine, but I was disappointed by the food -- I'd eaten there much better before. Jennifer and I decided that next time we go for pre-opera snacks, it'll involve caffeine instead of alcohol so that both of us stay awake during the show...