The good: On Saturday morning we met up with many friendlies at Tucanos so all of us May birthday people (there were 3 of us) could use our birthday coupons. We stuffed our faces and it was delightful indeed to see so many of our peeps AND get to eat those cheese rolls at the same time. Drew's sister, Elise, has been in town and it was especially nice to get to have some birthday festivities with her as well. She also came bearing a gift of an H&M gift card, which I will put to good use as soon as it opens in the fall (SCORE). The Ls gave me a wacky eyeglasses-style straw (http://www.latestbuy.com.au/drinking-straw-glasses.html). I haven't *quite* put those to good use (yet!) but I'm sure the event will be thoroughly documented, to everyone's amusement.
After Tucano's some of us girls (+Drew) took a little trip up to the mall. I just love the mall. I think I could spend hours there walking around and not actually buying anything. This time I found, at last, a maxi dress. The bad: I actually can't think of anything for this section, but you can't just say "the good and the ugly." Let's transition to that right now.~*~*~*magical transition*~*~*~
The ugly: I set a goal last summer to make a red velvet cake. I've never done it, and I like red velvet so I wanted to try it. But then we went to England and I never did it when we got back. So I set that goal again for this year and my birthday seemed like a good occasion (for the record, Drew did offer to make my cake). So! I made the batter. It looked beautiful. I put them in the oven. They smelled delicious. I opened the door...and they both had fallen. I sighed, but was not defeated. After all, frosting can cover many flaws, yes? Well, it can if your recipe makes enough frosting which mine, inexplicably, did not. Okay, so maybe I could have sent Drew off to the store for more frosting supplies. But the cake already looked like a sinkhole anyway and it looked so AWFUL that at that point abandoning it and making another attempt later seemed like the better solution. So, abandon it I did. And MAYBE (maybe) Drew felt a little wrath-of-the-foiled-baker (I love you, peaches!), but in the end we came out of the event unscathed.Since I couldn't bear to let anyone see my disfigured and half-frosted cake we met up with our friendlies again sans cake. In the end the cake situation turned out well, with an expedition to Walmart, the buying of a chocolate mousse cake and the singing of the birthday song. Thanks, friendlies! One day I hope to give you some red velvet cake.
As an epilogue to the unfortunate cake story, after lunch the next day Drew said, "Now, can I FINALLY eat some of this cake??" It tasted good, for all of its wretchedness. I guess that's something.
As an epilogue to that epilogue, Elise suggested I made the sad cake into a trifle and so I did! Elise, thanks for the idea--if you come back you can have some trifle. It tastes pretty good and it's a heck of a lot prettier to boot.
Okay, so maybe I aged a year, but I would rather just stick to the day version. At any rate, I just had my birthday. I had been very much looking forward to it because I was aware that Drewbles had been plotting and planning for some months. Plus it didn't hurt that there was a new Pirates of the Caribbean movie opening on my very birthday, just for me (more on that later). So, it was a Pirates-y kind of birthday, just for me.
The night before we stopped at the store to get a few things for my cake. I've been wanting to make a red velvet cake for months, and I thought my birthday was a good opportunity. Unfortunately the store did not have red food coloring of all things so we didn't get cake stuff after all. Instead we decided to get my birthday cereal of choice, chocolate Marshmallow Mateys (there's that pirate theme again). But alas, they had none of those either. So we went home because it was late and I didn't want to go to another store.
Well, the next morning I woke up and stretched about in my bed and lo, there was season 2 of Veronica Mars under my pillow! Well done, birthday fairy Drewbles. I traipsed off to get ready for work and then finally wandered into the kitchen to have some (*sigh*) non-birthday cereal when LO, there were the chocolate Marshmallow Mateys on the shelf! Drew went racing off to a different store while I was in the shower! How delightfully tricksy.
So off I went to work. I was only working a half day so I didn't take a lunch, which means I didn't touch my bag for a few hours. When I did finally open it, what did I find but season 3 of Veronica Mars! My first reaction was puzzlement, as I tried to remember when I put it in there before realizing what had happened. I hooped and hollered (inwardly) as now my collection was complete.
Drew came to pick me up from work and surprised me with a shaved face. He's had a beard since January and while I am very fond of the beard, I had been missing his face lately so it was a nice surprise. We ate lunch and watched some Project Runway, then I settled down to finish a collage of my Pirates socks (a collage Drew did most of the work for already). I then read my book for a little while and then played with the Wii until Drew came home a little after 5. I very much enjoyed wasting some time.
We had dinner plans at Bombay House but first we played a little game of hot and cold. The clues led me to our Tesco reusable bag in the kitchen where I found a Pirates fun pack--the new Lego game for the Wii, the latest soundtrack, a little Lego Jack figure and two tickets to the movie! At this point I was feeling *quite* spoiled. I put my Lego guy together and then off we went to Bombay House for MORE spoiling.
The food was delicious and we headed to the movie. Let me just say here that I love the first three movies to a perhaps ridiculous degree. I could talk about this for a while but I will summarize and say I love them and Dead Man's Chest is my favorite and I quote it often and I watched them all this week for the first time in ages and I just love them. Phew. Anyway, so when they announced a fourth was being made, I was skeptical because 1) it's totally unnecessary, after the neat wrapping up in the 3rd 2) No Will and Elizabeth 3) Worse, Penelope Cruz and Ian McShane. BUT I was still cautiously optimistic because hey, it's more Pirates and my love for it is not dependent on Will and Elizabeth by any means.
SO. We watched it, and about halfway through I turned to Drewbles and told him it was making me sad. Part of me wanted to leave, a little part of me wanted to cry and a very small part of me was occasionally amused. *sigh* And now I will summarize my grievances briefly: Ian McShane=BOMB, too much Jack being in the lead, not enough piracy, too much swinging from palm trees, too little chemistry, too much innuendo (compared to the first three). Anyway, I will give it another whirl at some point, I have been known to change my mind, but I did feel a little burned after.
So we headed home, dissecting the movie all the while, and as we were walking back inside, Drew said he left something in the trunk. Say, maybe I should go get it? Well, it turns out someone had left a large wrapped box in there. How weird! We went inside and I opened it up and found something I have been talking about for several months.Isn't it the prettiest and cutest little netbook you have ever seen? Originally I planned to name it Chabo, but when I saw it in its purple tinyness I knew what name she needed.
Quinn! And everytime she makes a fuss (which I hope is not often) I intend to say "Gee, Quinn." Unfortunately Quinn had a loose mouse button so we actually had to exchange her in the morning, haha. But now she is up and running, and I have great plans for us. Vera doesn't seem too jealous. In fact, she is probably relieved because this alternative will lead to much less of me shaking my fist at her and her aged, fussy ways.
To top of the day, we played a little Lego Pirates and watched the season finale of the Office. I also chatted with my Mama and Papa, heard a cute message from my brother and his family (who called during the movie), and did a little MSN chatting with my sister. So, almost everyone.
In the end, it was a truly delightful birthday. Many thanks to my lovely Drewbles for all of his surprises. He does spoil me so! But I'm not going to complain.
After Tucano's some of us girls (+Drew) took a little trip up to the mall. I just love the mall. I think I could spend hours there walking around and not actually buying anything. This time I found, at last, a maxi dress. 
As an epilogue to the unfortunate cake story, after lunch the next day Drew said, "Now, can I FINALLY eat some of this cake??" It tasted good, for all of its wretchedness. I guess that's something.
