XXIV

I have begun a post about my adventures with my mother, but I have not yet finished it.

In the meantime, Alex's birthday is tomorrow, but I leave for Jew Conference in the morning, so we celebrated today! After he got home from work, I took him out to brgr for dinner, which is a Petey's-priced burger restaurant on 26th and 7th with grass-fed beef. It was delicious! We'll be back there, for sure.

And then we came home and he finished reading Lady Wednesday and I finished reading Bitch Magazine (my favorite!) and I took him into the kitchen to see his cake!

I was going to make my birthday cake,

Aunt Carolyn's recipe,

but I didn't have German Sweet Chocolate

and I thought I would have to go all the way to TJ's

to get it.

So I made this generic chocolate cake

(although it has chopped pecans in it!)

with four layers and two kinds of icing!

Alex really likes generic cake, fortunately :)

It can be very useful and gratifying

having a boyfriend with no taste in dessert.

But actually, it is a pretty good cake,

if I do say so myself.

Now that I have finished that poem of a caption, on with the story!

We lit the candles in kitchen (24 of them!) and then he went to wait unassumingly in the dark library while I carried it in singing "Happy Birthday" (he sang the last few phrases with me, in harmony).

Make a wish!

What a lovely evening!

And now, for a tantalizing preview* of the post about last week with my mother...

Sunnyside's gourmet scene

*I can't give you a preview yet of my CSJO post, because I haven't even left yet! But I am excited, and you should be too.