Best Birthday EVER

Oh, my husband is a prince among men. I mean it. A prince.

If you read my birthday posts, you know I had a pretty crappy birthday. 3 a.m. wake up call, 8 hours in a car on the way to Virginia, and hit a deer along the way.

So, my husband promised to make it up to me. And boy did he ever.

The set up to this is that I am a huge Top Chef fan. Huge. Monumental. I mean, I look forward to it every week on TV. And every week I have been pulling for one chef. Chef Richard Blais. He's a hometown guy living here in the ATL and, I think, was one of the nicest people on the show.

Now, back to my husband. Tonight he made special reservations at Home Restaurant & Bar. And who is the Executive Chef there? Yep, you guessed. Richard Blais.

We pretty much knew we wouldn't get a chance to see him considering the show's finale hasn't aired yet. But, he was totally there. And, it gets better.

My crazy brother-in-law told our amazingly nice server that I wanted to have Chef Blais sign my body. Seriously, I'm crazy but it was NOT my idea. (Though I have to admit the moment he said it I knew it would make for an excellent blog post!)

And, what did the server at this very nice and upscale restaurant do? She went back and talked to him and got him to agree to come out. He came out to our table, talked to us about the food, the restaurant, and his cooking philosophy. In case you're wondering, and I know you are, he did not and could not tell us the outcome of Wednesday's finale. But, tune in to Bravo to find out. You know we will be watching with our fingers crossed!

We had a cool conversation with him at our table and then, amazingly, he told us after dessert he'd bring us back to the kitchen and - yep, you guessed it - sign my arm.


So, after a delicious dinner and a wonderful time, we went back to the kitchen and I got my arm signed by the gracious and talented Top Chef finalist Richard Blais.

I was ridiculously star struck and embarrassed by my giddiness. But, it made for the best birthday ever! Thank you dear sweet husband!!
(In case you can't read it through the freckles, it says Richard Blais from Top Chef 4. And, a picture of what he said was a copper pot with some Arugula coming out the top. See, he's so cool, right?)