Thanks, all! We ended up at a new Transylvanian restauraunt in Los Gatos (one of our members -- the other birthday girl -- had a DMV appointment there at 1:00, and it's close enough for all of us). The choices weren't great -- at least, not if I wanted to eat something authentic -- but I had cabbage soup and some sort of sausage. Not sure how many carbs it was, because I didn't see the recipes, but it FELT pretty good. The only real problem came when the waitress found out we were celebrating birthdays. She REALLY wanted to bring me a free dessert (and I must say the desserts looked scruptous) and wouldn't take "no" for an answer. You all know the line, "Oh, come on, it's your birthday, you have to have dessert, one won't hurt." I told her my birthday present to myself was to NOT go off my diet for the day -- and she KEPT pushing! Finally, the other women chimed in and got her to stop if we promised to let her join them in singing happy birthday. (By the way -- for any of you who live in the area -- while it isn't overwhelmingly cheap, the food was good, and it looked like the dinner menu had better LC options.)

Thanks for the suggestion of Max's, Cindy. Maybe over the weekend I'll get DH to take me there.

(Oh -- and while my mother and one brother have called, no one who lives here seems to remember that it's my birthday yet. I'm curious about whether they ever will. The trick is to not mention it, but NOT get mad if they HAVE all forgotten . . . I'm generally not into playing "gotcha" games.)

Marie H