Happy Birthday!

After running my errands (including a second box of cat food for the cat who has suddenly turned finicky), Shelly took me out for my birthday dinner. The plan was to celebrate on Oct. 25, one month late, but it looks like she'll be in China then, so we did it tonight, instead.

She had a great spot in mind, a place she's been on every trip to Manila, a restaurant called Italianni's. After Googling around, I now know that Italianni's also has branches in the U.S., though I've never heard of it before. However, the U.S. stores don't have the excellent Sicilian Chicken Salad they serve here: chicken breast, mangoes, ripe red grapes, pine nuts, with a lemon-dijon dressing and romaine lettuce.

And, I'll bet they don't have as much fun singing the birthday song in the U.S., either.

Shelly swears she had no plans to announce my belated birthday celebration to the staff, but if she did, she was off the hook, anyway, as our server noticed I was opening birthday cards. After a long wait for the bill, she came to the table and apologized, explaining that they were "preparing the ice cream for the birthday."

The birthday song started normally, with a happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday to you, and then immediately turned into a rousing edition of Macho Man.

Body...wanna feel my body?
Body...such a thrill my body
Body...wanna touch my body?
Body...it's too much my body
Check it out my body, body.
Don't you doubt my body, body.
talkin' bout my body, body,
check it out my body

Shelly was in stitches the whole time. I think she would have fallen off her chair if it had gone on much longer.

I'm tempted to take Shell back to Italianni's next month for her birthday. First, she likes the place. More importantly, I'm really, really curious about what they sing to women.