This past weekend was my birthday, and Elli booked us at the Kabuki hotel in a Japanese style room with sliding shoji screens, and indoor sand garden and a deep soaking tub.  We were only there for Saturday night, but we packed like we were going out of town for a month.

We had a cloth shopping bag of clothes to change into for when we went out to dinner that night, an XBox, my camera and tripod, three or four books each, and a bag of toiletries.  Amazingly enough, we fit inside the taxi with all our stuff, and the room didn’t explode at the seams.

Actually, the room was about 10 times bigger than our apartment.  I wouldn’t mind living at the hotel if they’d add a kitchen.

We went out to dinner at Benihana in the Japantown Mall, meeting our friends Scott and Jennifer.  Lots of food later, it was amazing any of us could move…

Elli and I slept late inside the shoji cacoon of calmness.  No stupid, loud neighbors keeping us up, no cats throwing up in the middle of the night (lovely sound to wake up to), and no kids using our door as a backstop as they play hallway basketball at 7am.

Happy Birthday to me!  Thank you, Elli!