Paul's 35th Birthday!

Today was my partner Paul's 35th birthday. As you probably know from past posts, Paul isn't vegan. But in the past month, he's joined a gym, started running, and he's making an attempt to eat healthier! So for his birthday, he asked for proper running shoes (he's been running in shoes not made for running). I bought him some new Brooks Launch shoes! I also got him some of his favorite pancakes from Brother Junpier's. Not vegan, unfortunately. But baby steps.

Eventually, he says he wants to run a half-marathon with me. We'll see if it sticks. Hope it will. The Brooks Launch are some badass shoes.

I got Paul's pancakes as takeout and then came home and fixed myself some rice noodle ramen, which I ate while watching Game of Thrones. Then we met up with my friend/co-worker Shara at a festival downtown. Our newspaper, The Memphis Flyer, was a sponsor, so we got free beer tickets. That bought us a LOT of beer! This was a combo of various Leinenkugel shandys and beer from Southern Prohibition.

No birthday is complete without cake! But since we didn't have a big party this year, I didn't want to bake a big cake. So we just bought a couple cupcakes from my friend Cassi's Pink Diva Cupcakery. Paul wanted the Diva Delight (in the foreground - chocolate cupcake with chocolate mousse filling and whipped cream topping), and I opted for the Cherry Cupcake (in the background - vanilla-cherry cake with cherry whipped topping).

For dinner, Paul wanted to go to his favorite steakhouse, Folk's Folly. That sounds like a vegan nightmare, I know. But they're actually super-nice there, and when we go, they always make me a vegan Pasta Primavera dish. I loved the veggie-to-pasta ratio!

After dinner, we met some friends at Los Compadres. Here we are at the end of the night. Happy birthday, Paul!