The story of my birthday

As you might recall, it was my birthday a couple of weeks ago and my wish list was pretty simple: I wanted to take the day off. On the fridge I posted a one-page list of all the things I wanted to do (sleep in, eat breakfast foods) and did not want to do (change diapers, be nagged) on my birthday. I'm happy to report that I more or less got exactly what I wanted. Nate also tried to give me money but I said no and returned the funds to the family account. Binging on breakfast foods and sitting on my butt were exactly what I wanted for the day.

I did get some presents. The Burley Bee my mom got us in mid-August was an early birthday present. My sister stopped by and presented the Williams-Sonoma Latin cookbook, and I am ridiculously excited to try out some recipes. It is a very nice book, high quality, with beautiful pictures. I bet she got it for me just because she knows I will test out the recipes and copy the best ones back to her... good thinking, sis. :o)

Here's my funny birthday story for you: A few months ago while we were grocery shopping at Costco, I confessed to my husband that, for quite some time, I'd been fantasizing about stealing one of the customized sheet cakes from the big cooler. Not because I want to deprive someone of their cake (no, that would be awfully mean and sad and disappointing); I just think it would be really funny to have a totally random cake. "Happy Anniversary Mufflie, You're the World's Best Iguana" or something, you know? But not one you made up, just one you closed your eyes and pulled out of the big cake cooler. I'm sure that makes me weird, but let's face it, I have a strange sense of humor. Just thinking the whole random cake thing makes me smirk.

I made this confession and basically forgot that it had come up (except that the next time we were at Costco, I was eyeing the cake cooler and Nate said, "You're thinking about stealing cakes again, aren't you?"). During the two or three weeks leading up to my birthday, he bugged me about what kind of cake I wanted. He wouldn't give my any details about the source of the cake, so then I had to give him layers of options. ("If you're making a cake, I want XY. If you're buying it from a store, then XY or XYZ or YZ would be good. If you're going to a fancy cake shop, then I want AQP or IGSH or LLZB.") You know how it is.

Birthday morning, he sneaked away for 20 minutes, then tried to secret the cake back into the house. Since I didn't know why he left or when he'd be back, I confronted him about abandoning me to have to do some work while he was gone ("I had to change a diap.... oh, what's that thing in your hands that you're trying to hide from me?") I was shooed away, but did I want cake before lunch or later in the evening? Duh, I wanted cake right that second. So I impatiently waited in the living room while he loaded up a handful of candles and then started singing a sweet, if a bit off-key, Happy Birthday.

(Poor Darling, with the singing and the cake, she thought it was her birthday all over again!)

I was presented with this chocolately surprise:

And yes, I giggled intensely the entire time I was cutting, serving, and eating the cake. It still brings a smile to my face.

(Later in the week, I also got an awesome card from the hubs: "We make a great team, don't we? You've got the beauty and the brains, and I've got... the best wife a guy could ask for. Happy Birthday." It even made my mom laugh, and that's no small feat.)