Week of June 25: Rodd the Bodd is 33

On Saturday, we celebrated our friend Rodd's (striped brown shirt) 33rd birthday. Todd and Leslie organized the birthday bash for Rodd at Medjool Cafe in San Francisco. We had a group dinner reservation at 7 PM. With the weather being so nice, some of us decided that 7 PM was way too late for cocktails. So Leslie, Todd, Kathi, Brian, Andrea and I met about an hour before at Foreign Cinema for happy hours. Foreign Cinema is right next to Medjool Cafe. It is mainly a restaurant but has a separate bar that serves strong happy hour drink specials and has a divy-er industrial chic feel to it compared to Medjool. Another interesting thing about Foreign Cinema is that foreign independent films are screened in its outdoor covered dining area every night... hence the name. We all arrived separately at Foreign Cinema around the same time and enjoyed a few rounds of Cosmos (for the gals) and pilsners (for the men).

Kathi (from left to right), Leslie and Andrea really seemed to enjoy their 3rd Cosmo of the night. Brian was trying to convince us that a Cosmo was a perfectly acceptable drink for a man as well. He claimed that on a hot day, beers were too "heavy".

At 7, we left Foreign Cinema and went over to Medjool Cafe for Rodd's party. I think the 6 of us were all feeling pretty good from multiple rounds of happy hour $2 drink specials (not many places in SF where you can get drinks for that price). At Medjool, we met up with the rest of our group (about 30 people all together). They set us up at the Mezzanine Level where they had an entire corner section reserved for us. Medjool serves "small plates" inspired by the diverse cuisines of southern France, Italy, Spain, Morocco, Tunisia and parts of the Middle East. We ordered lots of delicious "small plates" as well as a lot of birthday drinks.

One clear sign that we are getting older is the fact that our gatherings are becoming more and more dominated by couples. Andrea and I are chillin in our comfortable seats on the Mezzanine Level. Kevin and Mariella are enjoying themselves as well.

On the left, the cute couple Jason and Todd. Brian also brought along his beautiful date, Invisible Woman.

I'm pretty sure that Rodd had a good time. The good thing about having 30 people throw you a party is that you have good friends that are fond of you. The bad thing about celebrating your birthday at a fully stocked bar with 30 friends is that you do lots and lots of shots. As you can see from the picture on the left, just as Rodd is about to do another shot, Tracey, in the background, is ordering another round.

And Tracey orders yet another round. Rodd's thought bubble: "Not another Tequila... is there a back door out of this place?"

Rodd finally gives Tracey the "stank eye". But being a good soldier, Rodd takes his drinks like a man. I think it was shortly after this that Rodd's memory shuts down. Note to self, Tracey is not invited to my birthday!

And finally, Rodd gets his birthday cake. Happy Birthday Rodd. Hope you had a Birthday you couldn't remember.