Birthday really means birthWEEK.

Birthday - guess the name would indicate that the event should only last one day. I have never subscribed to that theory; I mean - what's the point?!?! I personally prefer the birthWEEK. So last night we kicked off my birthWEEK by having dinner at Oceanaire Seafood Room, one of our favorite places in Seattle to eat for a variety of reasons.

• Great fresh seafood; the menu is updated at lunch and dinner daily.
• Even though the non-seafood options are limited, Marc still loves going and devouring the roast chicken.
• The wine list is not massive but has some good labels for us to try new things.
• They have a great bar that allows you to order the full menu, which seems less cavernous than 2 people in a huge booth.
• It has a dessert that Marc has tried to finish repeatedly and failed miserably. Anyone who has been with Marc at dessert time knows how rare that can be. The dessert in question is known as the Super Fudge Caramel Brownie and according to the wait staff, only one person has finished it after a full meal - Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs (notice Tim's height and weight).

So last night, we found a new bottle of wine to try a bottle of syrah called Tyrus Evan. We were attracted to it because the grapes came from a place in Oregon where we have found wines we have liked in the past - Del Rio Vineyards, which is in the Rogue Valley. The bottle was very nice and it went very well with the meal.

We sometimes get questions about wines in the Pacific NW. Tyrus Evan is actually based in Carlton, OR, which is in the Yamhill Valley just outside of Portland, OR. But Yamhill is actually part of the more better known Willamette Valley (say WILL-AM-IT, DAMN-IT not Will-um-et), very well known for Pinot Noir. If you look at a map of the world, you will notice that Portland, OR is roughly at the same latitude as Burgundy, France. Many of the wines have related characteristics because of the similar climates.

All in all, a great evening. On the work front, Microsoft released RC1 (Release Candidate 1) of Windows Vista - our new operating system. I've been using it full-time at work and it keeps getting better and better with each release. It's going to continue to be a tough slog from now until when we release, but things are looking good.

Anyway, we'll keep you posted on some other great wines and meals that I am sure we will have this week. Stay tuned!