For 60 days I have had a $75 gift certificate to a fancy new seafood restaurant in the new tallest building downtown. It had a 60 day expiration date on it and Mark and I just had never gotten around to using it. That was frustrating, but it's not like you could just run over there for dinner. You really needed it to be planned, have a reservation, look nice, and plan on spending some time. We almost went there on our anniversary weekend and ended up going closer to home.

I really hated to throw away $75. B! was available for dinner last night so we went and used it and celebrated her graduation. I had been thinking about her accomplishment and feeling sorry that she doesn't have anyone to throw a big party for her like my mom and sister did for me when I got my masters. Also, B! just found out a dear close lifelong friend has eight brain tumors. It is very sad and she's spending lots of time with her, so she needed a break to get out and laugh.

B! was dressed up and looked terrific. It was kind of funny because I called and told her it was a fancy place and not appropriate for shorts and flipflops. I felt like I had to put that out there because sometimes we've gone out and I felt like she was underdressed for the event. This time she was a knockout. I was the one that looked like a slob!

We got there early for the reservation so we sat in their fancy bar right on Congress and sipped brimming chilled drinks... Cosmopolitan for her, dirty martini for me. Strong drinks. Expensive drinks. But we felt like uptown girls. If I were trolling for rich men, I might have to start drinking in this bar more and wearing a short skirt and high heels. ha Not going to happen.

They seated us in a booth and as we were guided to it (and they carried our drinks... I like when they do that), all the busboys, waitresses, cooks, everybody, said, "Hi, welcome, glad you're here..."-type talk. Friendly bunch.

Oh, what wonderful food. I love to eat, but there are so few opportunities to really eat in a good, and I mean GOOD, restaurant. We had two appetizers. One was smoked shrimp and crab fritters or somesuch and the most heavenly creamy sauce to dip them in. Oh, that was so good. I could go back and make a meal out of that. And a martini glass of cerviche. I hadn't had cerviche since I was in the Bahamas, because it is just one of those iffy things you want to make sure they know how to prepare. This place did it perfectly.

For the meal, B! had a fish enchilada plate that was beautiful and heaped high. I had cashew encrusted talapia. Yum. Both were delicious.

The gift certificate still had room so we, of course, had dessert. I'm not a huge dessert eater (I'm huge because I eat Doritos, hahaha), but they had a fabulous apple pie. Yes, it even beat that one I made last week. Nothing prefab about it. It had brown sugar and walnuts underneath the bottom crust and it was served upside down. The sugar was still crystally while the inside of the pie was smooth. Wonderful. And on the side a small scoop of Amy's cinnamon ice cream. I'm not much for pie ala mode either, but this ice cream really added to this pie. Heaven. Beth had a pecan pie, but it wasn't heated and I would have had to send it back if it were mine and have it heated up.

If I were giving a full review of the restaurant, everything was a big thumbs up except she didn't bring us any coffee with dessert as we requested. I don't know if we got charged for it or not since I just gave her the gift certificate and we called it even. The prices were very reasonable on the menu (which surprised us after drinks that cost $7.50). I don't know how much the desserts were and that is what I will go back for, I think...just dessert and coffee. If they will remember to bring me the coffee.

Of course, the food was wonderful and it was neat to go to a new exciting place, especially for free, but it was the conversation that really made it a nice night. I will miss B! so much when she finds a job and moves on. I hope she finds something wonderful that makes her very very happy, but I hope someday she comes back and makes Austin her home. We will always be close and we stay close with e-mail and the phone, but that face-to-face communication for three hours cannot be duplicated.