Monday Mug

I saw this picture of Christina Aguilera on MSN today and it just cracks me up everytime I see it (check out the full "news" item here for another delightful picture).

Happy Monday!

A Little Night Music

Last week we went to the 25th anniversary show for the Phantom of the Opera (or as the website calls it 'Phantom of the Opera'). The two in the lead were the two leads we saw and loved so much in Love Never Dies (Ramin! Sierra!) last year so we were EVer so excited to see them in the original. Earlier that day at work I decided to get into the theme of things by listening to ye olde original cast on Spotify. First I was distracted by the title track with the Canadian cast, including ye olde Colm Wilkinson. It was dismal, but then I was distracted again by this "Tribute to Phantom of the Opera." Just look at the cover art!
A pirate patch? A wacky feather hat creation? A random floating rose? I should have known then that it was going to be...special. I started the title track and said, hmm, okay. But then it just got worse and worse and I was giggle snorting at my desk. Naturally I couldn't stop there and listened to the rest of the CD. Let me tell you. AMAZING. So incredibly amazing in its terrible terribleness. So terrible I'm pretty sure it's the worst CD in the WORLD. Or at least the worst CD in the world based on something else. I could hardly contain my snorts of laughter and sent pretty much every track to Mr. Graham via Spotify.

The moral of this story? Check it out. You will not be sorry. Highlights include the sleepy Phantom in the title track, everything about Music of the Night, the disaster that is All I Ask of You and the garbled words in Point of No Return. In fact, there are words wrong in pretty much every song.

If you needed another reason to try out Spotify, this is it, my friends. This is it. Samples on Amazon are not enough for this level of terrible.

(Oh, and the concert was great. Sierra killed it, Ramin tried a little too hard to kill and so didn't *quite* kill it but I still heart him.)

A Little Creepy

A little while ago (okay, several months ago) Mr. Graham introduced me to the creepiest children's book cover in the world. Check it out, it's the heart warming story of two children and their wee pup...
...and the super creepy neighbor man.

O.O

In Which I Masquerade as a Food Blog

No, I still haven’t made that cake! But I have a plan. A plan that involves making that cake. But in the meantime, we have been trying all kinds of new and exciting recipes. Sometimes we try the same new and exciting recipe over and over again because we like it so much. For whatever reason, I like to spread the food discoveries around. I really didn’t cook too much until we got married so the food world still has a lot of undiscovered territory for me. I get excited when I find something new and delicious and think everyone else should make it too. So, here are some of the things we’ve been eating lately.

(I was going to be fancy and put pictures with all of these, but fancy is overrated. There are plenty of pictures to be found at the links)

Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas

Oh man. We have made these so many times this summer. They are SO good we have to stop ourselves from eating the whole pan in one go. Also, they are really super easy! I just cook the chicken in a crock pot all day and then it pretty much shreds itself. Seriously, make them! You will be doing yourself a favor.

Also, I’ll just take this moment to say that I discovered this blog a few months ago and proceeded to make a several other things from it (but mostly I just ogle the desserts). Never have I been disappointed! Some other winners so far include Taco Pasta and Pork Carnitas. I have a backlog of all the recipes I want to try out.

Buffalo Chicken Enchiladas

I guess we have had a thing for enchiladas this summer. We didn’t love these as much as the others (we only made them once!), but they were still pretty easy and tasty. I think some black beans would be a great addition to this one.

Mac and Cheese Soup

I stumbled across this recipe a little while ago and I was just AMAZED at the concept. And by amazed I mean kind of grossed out. It just seemed so wrong. So wrong that I had to try it and see if it could possibly work. And it was surprisingly good! Drewbles could hardly stop eating it. It had a really nice flavor and, really, how could I ever object to mac and cheese anything? I did add a can of tomatoes with green chilis, just because it was so orange, and I’m glad I did. Also—so super easy and fast. That seems to be the theme here today…

Puttanesca

Last week we finished (re)reading all the Series of Unfortunate Events and to celebrate we had a delightful themed dinner including chilled cucumber soup (we used Greek yogurt instead of regular), aqueous martinis and puttanesca with fettucine. I have to admit, this recipe intimidated me. Capers? Anchovies? Well, mostly those two things intimidated me. BUT it was actually quite easy and really good. I used anchovy paste instead of anchovies, as someone suggested, since it’s easier to keep on hand and won’t gross me out. Only a villainous person could turn down such a delicious thing.

Grilled Corn, Peach and Basil Salsa

Confession: I did not grill the corn. But this still turned out delicious. Homemade salsa of any variety really is just so much better than store bought (not that I would turn down store bought). One day when we have a yard with a garden with a dozen tomato plants, I will make salsa every day. Or at least every other day.

Five Ingredient Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

We’ve had these twice in the last week! Surprise surprise—they’re the easiest cookies in the world to make. Even I, an exceptionally slow cooker (hah), can make this dough in five minutes. Plus you get bonus points for being able to tell people they only have five ingredients! It makes for a fun guessing game.

And there you have the highlights. We’ve also had things like tomato sandwiches, Portobello burgers and turkey gyros.

Of course in between these things we’ve had plenty of $5 pizza and more Rancherito than I would ever want to admit to. We like our food and we're not picky! Hah.

O.O

I can tell I'm getting over my recent cake-baking woes because I'm actually considering making this cake. I mean, three layers? Ganache? Delicate drippings of chocolate? Am I crazy or something?

But look at it! (I mean, look at it!) Even if it turns out to be Bits o' Cake, those will be the best Bits o' Cake to date. How can I resist???

PS: Husband, remind me to add parchment paper and another round cake pan to the shopping list. Also lots of cream cheese and peanut butter.

My Favourite and My Best

Two years ago this happened. Can you believe it's been two years? I just read that post over again and besides being pretty funny to me, it makes it seem like it was just yesterday. What a great day! There have been so many, many great days since then, but that one still stands out as an extra especially great day.

Mr. Graham is just the nicest husbandman in the world. He is so thoughtful and nice and compliment-y and helpful and not complain-y and funny and he is so cute when he sleeps. I like to say that he is my favorite and my best. Here are some other ways he is my favorite and best:

• He laughs when I say ridiculous things like “If you were a button, I would call you husbandybuttons.”

• He humors me when I ask if I can quit my job and stay at home all day like a bum.

• He lets me pin him down and tickle his feet.

• He always does the dishes. Always!

• He is my faithful and insightful little reader.

• He never says I don’t need that new pair of shoes.

• He puts up with a lot of whining about wanting cheese when I’ve fallen to the Communists (and then gives me cheese).

• He loves me so and tells me so all the time.
  

Really, he is such a nice husband, and I like him so well. I so look forward to our adventures together, even if those adventures are just sitting on the couch and watching movies.

As a side note, I wish I could say “my favourite and my best” was my own linguistic creation, but it actually comes from an episode of Charlie and Lola. I feel about Mr. Graham the same way a small girl child feels about snow. Watch it! I love this show.

Happy anniversary, husbandybuns! :*

Dwarfs are very upsetting...

...but not THESE dwarves! Well, unless you're an Orc, I suppose. Or a dragon. Or maybe an elf. Or an undisturbed mountain full of mithril.
It's interesting how they all look so different, but for the most part all look very dwarf-y (aside from the Hugh Jackman dwarf on the right). If I didn't know it was him, I don't think I could EVER tell that was Richard Armitage as Thorin.

Sweet. Now where are some more pictures of Legolas Bilbo?

(Speaking of Bilbo, when do I get more Sherlock, PBS?)

In a non-spoilery fashion, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 was....

...amazing.
...overwhelming.
...hard to watch.
...a little puzzling at times.
...emotional.
...bittersweet.

Whew. I should probably go to bed.

In Which I Bake Half a Cake

In March I made a beautiful cake for Mr. Graham's birthday. See?Beautiful. I was so proud of myself and this, my first frosted cake, made entirely from scratch. Encouraged by my handiwork, I continued in my quest to make cakes, all of which would surely be as beautiful as the first. Clearly I had a gift. Well, we know what became of my second cake.Trifled! The third cake, Red Velvet Round 2, turned out much better. I felt bolstered again and waited for an excuse to make this strawberry cake. Not too difficult, right? Half of it comes from a box after all. Today came a suitable cake occasion, and I rubbed my hands gleefully. Look at these perfect cakes all ready for the (new) oven!Out they came, still looking like perfection. Maybe I was feeling a little cocky at this point, but it seemed kind of justified because they were so pretty and pink. Well, this was before I took them out of their pans, leaving a 1/3 of them behind. No, I did not take a picture of this stage. Instead I crept into the corner while Mr. Graham did his best to slice the remains from the pan and work them back onto the cakes. This was a feat since the cakes were ever so delicate and threatened to fall apart with the least bit of handling.

Now, let's just skip over the part where I threw myself onto the bed in despair and maybe cried over my wretchedly deformed cakes. Mr. Graham patted me on the head, told me the cake was lovely and played some Lego Pirates of the Caribbean with me to put me back in good humor.

SO, once the weeping and wailing was done, we set to work on the cake. With the frosting all ready to go, it seemed like an attempt ought to be made to salvage the poor thing. What is frosting for but to cover up the cake and all its frailties, right? We delicately maneuvered one layer onto the cake stand and frosted it without difficulty. Hope returned! We next performed the tricky operation of flipping the second layer on top. As it turns out, it was a too tricky to actually work and some ominous cracks were formed in the process. Resisting the urge to bang my head on the table, I set to work covering up the whole disaster with delicious frosting.

Success was shortlived, as the frosting worked its way into those ominous crevices and whole chunks finally went tumbling right off the cake, like some kind of delectable strawberry avalanche. At this point, the whole thing was becoming more and more ridiculous, too ridiculous to cry over and too ridiculous to not laugh at. We considered taking a few slices to our little dinner party, but somehow settled on this solution:Yes, we took half a cake to dinner. It felt a little like giving someone a half-eaten lasagna.

You might think that was the end of the poor cake's trouble, but you would be wrong! The combination of our warm apartment and too little powdered sugar made the frosting just a teensy bit soupy. It would look all right for a moment, but the frosting would inevitably begin to ooze and seep downwards. In fact, it looked very much like someone left the cake out in the rain.

The cake was so sad I even came up with a song to describe it. It's a pretty simple song. In fact, to borrow a phrase, there is very little lyrical content--just "Puddle-y cake" repeated over and over to the tune of Jigglypuff's song.

Well, in the end we all ate the cake, and although it splinted into its many pieces when sliced and half the frosting had puddled onto the cake stand, it was eaten up. After all, there was nothing wrong with the taste.

And what became of that other half of cake?It's a new dessert. I like to call it "Bits o' Cake."

Video Roll Call

Disclaimer: pretty much everything in this post has already been blogged about by almost every member of Drew's blogging family. So this post is for all two of my readers that are not related to him, hah.

Videos! Let's watch some funny ones.

First up, Drew's sister Elise came for a surprise visit last month and during the ensuing festivities we made this video. It was all her brainchild (and her editing job). Normally I would be running the other direction from doing this sort of thing, but heck, there must have been something in the water that day. Funtimes!



Next. Also during Elise's trip she introduced us to the next doozy. It's a dramatically read review of an intentionally silly and easy flash game called Press Space to Win (play it, it will take about 4 minutes). And wow, just wow. It's one of those things that makes me laugh so hard I can't control my face.



And for something totally different: FROGS! Well, A frog. I swear, one day I'm going to be this frog for Halloween. Probably the year after I'm Mama Odie.



Last but not least, just because I was listening to some Michael Jackson today and thinking fondly of Disney parks. Hooter!

A Land of Harry Potter

So, to pick up where I left off, during our big Florida trip we planned to spend a day at the Universal theme parks. I'd been there once before and even without Harry, I wanted to go for a day just to take Drew on Spider-man (long held as my favorite ride) and Jurassic Park. With the addition of Harry Potter land, there was no way we could pass Universal over. When the day arrived, the bus service picked us up at our resort (about a half hour later, mind) and off we went. It was a bit of a drive and everyone on the bus was a bit annoyed when we had to stop at Sea World to drop off TWO people, but in the end we arrived and we were gleeful and excited.

We could see Hogwarts from the park entrance, but, correctly assuming everyone would rush there and leave other areas deserted, we first went to Spider-man (and walked on). I loved that ride so much when I went before, and luckily it was just as much fun as I remember. We then went along to the Jurassic Park area, which is always awesome, and walked on to that ride as well. Unfortunately it wasn't *quite* as exciting as I remembered (I swear the t-rex used to move). BUT it was dinosaurs and stuff so I was hardly disappointed. I will add that it was also wetter than I remembered, which caused me some trouble with my bangs. They dried all flippy and weird. Exciting, right?

Anyway, our detour hardly took any time at all and soon we made our way to Harry Potter and it was just like a dream! Everything was so...REAL and right there. It was crowded, but honestly, I didn't even notice the crowds because it was exhilarating to be there. Seriously, there was nothing that disappointed. NOTHING.

The food: We ate lunch at the Three Broomsticks and for a bonus, our lunch was Cornish pasties and shepherds pie. It felt like being back in our beloved England. We tried both the regular and frozen butterbeer (regular wins), and naturally got the commemorative mug. We also bought a bottle of pumpkin juice that was DElicious (the juice, not the bottle). When we were in the Disney parks we were quite thrifty with our food. We refilled a water bottle the whole time and we brought a lot of snacks with us. But here? We were ready and willing to give them any amount of money necessary for such authentic fare, and the same went for souvenirs. Luckily the food was pretty reasonably priced, but really, I would have happily paid $20 for a cup of butterbeer. I mean, how often does the opportunity come along, right???

The rides: The family-friendly Buckbeak-themed coaster was fun. You go right by Hagrid's Hut and Buckbeak bows to you. The much wilder Dragon Challenge roller coaster is also fun. I went on it before, and really, not much has changed except the queue theming--which on its own makes the ride worth it. The real gem of the place though is the all new ride housed in the Hogwarts castle: Harry Potter and the Final Journey. No, that's just what I always THINK it's called--it's actually Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. It's amazing and SO much fun. First, the line goes through the castle, which is a treat on its own, and you see classrooms, talking portraits (including the founders), the Fat Lady, the sorting hat, Dumblydore's office--so many things! The ride itself is an amazing concoction of characters, creatures and places and is also a mix of video, motion and actual creatures (I mean like things that are real that you could touch [if touching were allowed]. Is there another way to describe that?). Truth be told, my head was spinning a bit after but it's totally worth it.

The shops: There are bunch of very authentic shops to explore. You could spend hours just in the shops (we did) checking out all the goodies they have. You could also spend a LOT of money, very easily. We spent a tidy bundle ourselves, but again, how often do you get the opportunity?? They're very clever to sell a lot of things you never see anywhere else, which makes it seem all the more like you MUST buy it, haha. Naturally we both got wands at Ollivander's but we also got a set of playing cards, a magnet, a photo frame that looks like the mirror Erised and various other little goodies.

Okay, that's a lot of words. Time for pictures!

I would like to take this moment to say there was a total lack of anything BSG related! I made up for it by ding-ing the prologue music as we stood in front of the globe.

It's a pretty sweet entrance. What do they got in there, King Kong?

I'm happy to report that Drewbles liked this ride a lot too. So fun!

Hogsmeade! Do please note the shirts we bought in advance especially for this day.

Hogwarts!!!! Seriously, it was so exciting to look up throughout the day and see it there, looking down on us benevolently.

ANY AMOUNT OF MONEY.
Don't touch it! It's a portkey!
This makes me look like a huge Sirius fangirl, but really, I wanted to do this to pretty much everything. (Though also I just love Gary Oldman and this movie.)
Oh please take us to Hogwarts! Never mind, we can just walk there.
Little bitty Cornish pasties! Oh Harry Potter, you really are magical.
It just looks so real. I mean, it is real. But REALLY real.
Lemon drop!
ANY AMOUNT OF MONEY. (No, that second straw is not going up his nose.)
Drew tried on Voldemort's wand for size.
I was a little taken with Sirius's (again with the Sirius, but I mean look at it!).
In the end, we had to go with Hermione's and Harry's. How could we do otherwise?
(When we go again, I might definitely have to get Sirius's.)
We tried on some robes at one of the Universal stores. Not only do they assume you will, an employee will even offer to take your picture with other goods! Nice.
Ah, beautiful.

I'll admit that I was a little sad to not be going back to Hogsmeade the next day. But going on Dinosaur first thing did lift my spirits.
We took hundreds of pictures at Hogsmeade, many of which I've posted on Facebook. If you would like to see them and don't have Facebook, I would be happy to email the link to any interested parties.

Until next time, Harry!

A World of Disney

So, for those two or three of you who may not have heard, last month we took a big trip to Florida to Disneyworld. Mr. Graham has done a very thorough trip summary on his blog, but, in the spirit of my first-time Disneyland post, I'm just going to list some of the highlights here.

Favorite ride(s): DINOSAUR. It's like Indiana Jones, except with dinosaurs! I wanted to go on it again and again and everytime I squealed with delight. Another winner was Expedition Everest, also in Animal Kingdom.

In general, I preferred the Disneyland version of the rides that the parks have in common (like Pirates, Splash Mountain, Space Mountain etc.), but the Disneyworld tweaks on Tower of Terror and Haunted Mansion where were pretty good cool.

Least favorite ride: I actually have one this time! Journey to Imagination, at Epcot. Wow, what a snoozefest! I was a little bit insulted by its lameness. A runner up to this would be Maelstrom, also in Epcot. As soon as it matches the Maelstrom in At World's End, let me know.

Favorite show: As at Disneyland, it's a tossup between Captain EO and Bug's Life. I find this interesting because I'm not a huge fan (or even a medium fan) of Michael Jackson or a Bug's Life. But man, I could go to those shows over and over. Thank goodness they're in California too. I also really liked Mickey's PhilharMagic, the Indiana Jones stunt show and the live Lion King show.

Tastiest food: We ate so much food! The turkey leg is always a winner, but the pizza we had in Italy ('Italy') was SUPER good. I mean, I even ate the crust, that's how good it was. We usually got breakfast at our hotel in the morning, and they had this super delicious breakfast pizza. Basically everything we ate was delicious.

Favorite souvenir: I looked EVERYWHERE for the Nightmare bath toys, but they were not to be found. I consoled myself with some pink flip flops instead. We also got a magnet to match our Disneyland one, and a pin, like we do on each trip. Drewbles got me a shirt in England ('England') as well as a very expensive pack of Jammie Dodgers. He also got me a Claddagh ring which I, along with pretty much every other girl who ever watched the early years of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, have always wanted. Well done, husband.

A few of my favorite things:
--The different countries at Epcot. We walked through them many times, and I think you could spend hours exploring all the nooks and crannies.
--Did I mention Dinosaur?
--A week with no work and time with my honeybuns! It's always a delight.
--Speaking of Mr. Graham, he auditioned for the American Idol Experience in Hollywood Studios, won his first show and placed second at the finale show for the day. He did so great, and I was so proud. You can see my contraband video of him in the second show here (you can also see his first performance too, but I like the second better).
--Drew's sister Cami and her Disney cruise-bound family were in Magic Kingdom for one day and it was fun to rendezvous with them. It also led to a really great picture on Splash Mountain (see below).
--I liked that in addition to the rides, shops, shows and Disney stuff there was also a lot of stuff was, like, educational and informative. There was a cool aquarium in Epcot, a safari and nature trails in Animal Kingdom and other things scattered throughout. I had fun and I also learned that a rhino's skin is an inch thick! It's the best of both worlds.

In the end, I will miss some of the things you can only find at Disneyworld, but I'm excited to go back to Disneyland and go on Indiana Jones and walk across the street to the hotel. Both of them have really cool, unique things. Props go to Mr. Graham for planning the whole thing!

Okay, picture time!

At the Tree of Life in Animal Kingdom. It is quite the impressive big, fake tree.

Oh England! Such a beautiful castle. Bonus: (almost) not a single other soul in the picture. Double bonus: Dumbo.

It is always kind of weird experience interacting with characters, especially ones who don't talk.

Those side-by-side seats on Splash Mountain are handy! Thanks, Cami, for making this picture extra special.

Oh hello there, girlhood crush of mine. You seem to be lacking a body.

The delicious pizza! We bought it from a lovely Italian boy named Alberto.
DINOSAUR! Need I say more?
(And apologies for the punk behind me.)
(Especially since you probably wouldn't have noticed him if I hadn't pointed him out.)
In France! Pretty much the same as the real thing, right?

A huge (flasher) fruit bat in Animal Kingdom! They were fascinating and had such cute little bat faces.
Farewell for now, Disneyworld! We'll see you again.

Stay tuned for the rundown on Harry Potter land. Pretty much everything will be filed under "Coolest thing ever."

The After Birthday: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

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.

In Which I Age a Day

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.