Paula's 40th Birthday bash

(From left: Deb, Dolly, Paula, Maile and Cathy)

Yesterday our friend Paula turned 40. Saturday night her husband Karl and 8 of us took her out for dinner, dancing and Michael Jackson.

The night started at Dante's Down the Hatch for dinner. If you haven't been there, it is a Fondue restaurant with a really nice wine list. A few bottles of wine and a lot of laughs later Karl brought out an incredible chocolate cake. It was covered with strawberries. Of course, the ladies all wanted to know what the strawberries were covered in (they had a gelatin coating to make them shiny). The service was great, the waitress and the wine steward all indulged our silliness.

Some strange conversations about Diego; some horse that bothered Maile on her vacation and Karl's mistaken identity.

Next we went into the bar district in Buckhead. Personally, I hadn't been in the bar district with my wife since before Meghan was born so this was quite the unusual. I was also 23 or 24 last time, not 39.

First stop was East Andrews for a few drinks. Then we went upstairs to Andrews Upstairs for a concert by a Michael Jackson cover band. The place was packed and the crowd was singing along. I doubt there were 10 (other) people in the place older than 40 ;-) They carded everyone going in, but Dolly didn't have her license so she was giving the kid a hard time about how she was not going to walk back to the car in those heels to get her license!

The band was actually pretty good and the ladies all had fun dancing.

After the concert we went back to East Andrews for a few more drinks then we were going to head home. Then the DJ started playing 80's dance music like Bon Jovi 'living on our hair', Neil Diamond 'Sweet Caroline' and a number of other songs we danced to in the 80's. The ladies and most of the guys started dancing and there was no going home. Reminded me a lot of the bars from college. (Anyone else go to Vermont because the drinking age was 19?)

The birthday girl had a great time. Even the 20-somethings were dancing and cheering her on. At one point she and her brother did a swing-dance like dance to one of the songs. I'm guessing they had lessons because they made it look so easy. A lot of people were watching them and cheered.

We finally left at 2:30 am. Yes, I was up at 2:30 am and there wasn't a sick child or a trip to the ER involved. Damn I'm getting old.

Cathy and Maile were the designated drivers, so no fear of Deb or me driving. When we got home the girls had locked all the doors and put the chains on. I tried calling the house 3 or 4 times, kept opening and closing the doors loudly etc. trying to wake them up. Even the dog came to the door once, barked, then saw it was us and stopped.

I finally kicked the door in, breaking the chain. Of course, Deb was already in from the front door, having woken up Courtney. One second Deb was behind me, the next she's in the house after I kicked the door in. No damage, I just need to replace the chain this weekend.

We got Meghan and Courtney back to sleep around 3:30 and passed out.