At least, I think he had a happy birthday. We went out for dinner at Dolce Vita. The food was delicious but the service left much to be desired. First off we were greeted with, "How many? Two? OK." and then he disappeared before we could tell him we had a reservation. A few minutes later a waitress appeared and repeated the man's performance but before she could run away we let her know about our reservation. She grabbed some menus and hotfooted it back inside the dinning room. She reappeared a few minutes later and said follow me. She took us to a large, round table that seated six then changed her mind and hustled us over to a large booth that would have seated six, tossed the menus on the table and scurried off like the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. She came back not five minutes later to take our food order. I know she was just thinking of the food order because when I gave her my drink order she looked quite surprised. Our food arrived in record time (I've waited longer at the A&W for a Teen Burger) and I was quite surprised at how good it was. DH had ordered the salmon on a plank which he claimed was very tasty and I had the sirloin steak neptune which was delicious, until about four hours later when it stopped tasting so good. After she had delivered our meals the service deteriorated. About 30 minutes after we had finished eating our waitress swung by our table to ask if we wanted dessert. We told her no thank you but we would like a fancy, alcoholic coffee and asked what kinds they had. She didn't know but said she would bring us the drinks menu. Another 30 minutes passed before I could catch her eye. I gave her the don't-you-want-a-tip look and we had the drinks menus a minute later. I asked DH if he still wanted a coffee and he said yes so we made our choice and then settled back to wait for our waitress to reappear. We asked for decaf and they had to make a fresh pot so I understood the wait for the coffees however, I missed having a cherry sitting atop the whipped cream on my Spanish Coffee. Then we waited for the bill so we could leave. We have been to this restaurant three or four times in the past 20 years (always new owners) and the food has always been good and the service has always been bad. I suppose we'll try it again when it next changes hands.
DH loved his gifts. He hasn't opened the bar of 86% cocoa yet but he's one of those weird people who like to savour sweets over days, even weeks. Once I open a bar of chocolate, I don't put it down until I've licked the wrapper clean. I did get both of his birthday socks finished and wrapped and he put them on right away and wore them until bed time. I think he liked the heating, massaging seat cushion best. He plugged it in and played with the controls for about half an hour. Men and their toys. Maybe I'll get him a chain saw for Christmas. HA! Maybe not.