Adventures with Teh Bear... part 10

Feb 3rd is my birthday, if you weren't aware.  Birthday have always been a pretty big deal in my family.  Drew says thats not the same for him, but I think he's picking up on the fact that his birthday is a big deal for ME, even if he doesn't really see it that way.

This was the first year that Drew and I were able to do something awesome on my birthday.  We were in GTMO for the first one, and I'd been in a car accident the weekend before which "pulled some muscles" in my back (or so the docs said) and I was lying in bed writhing in pain that year.  Last year, I was in Bahrain.  But this year, Drew arranged for his vacation to include my birthday!  YAY!

Just for the record, for Drew's bday (Dec 18th), in GTMO, I made him cupcakes.  I was baking cupcakes for a bake sale the weekend prior and we were hanging out one evening and I told him I needed suggestions for what kind of cupcakes I should make.  He said chocolate with white icing, so instead of making those for the bake sale, I made them for his birthday.
Last year, since I was in Bahrain and couldn't bake cupcakes, I ordered cupcakes from Sweet! and had them delivered to his workplace.
This past year, I lied and told him I was going to Philly to visit some friends, which instead I was planning on swinging by Orlando on my way to NC for Christmas.  Not really on the way.  He was only kinda surprised.  Nonetheless, I was there for his birthday, despite how un-surprised he acted.

A the day before my birthday, I was leaving for work and when I walked out the door, I noticed a big box from Amazon and a smaller envelope with a book inside.  I knew the small envelope was the Retired Racers for Dummies book that I had purchased about Greyhounds, but I hadn't ordered anything large from Amazon, so I was curious to what the box was, but didn't have time to open it.  I brought the box inside and put it in the living room floor so Drew wouldn't trip over it and brought the envelope with me.  When I came home later for lunch, the box was gone.

I asked Drew where the box was and his response was, "What box?"  Subtle.  I teased him a few more times by asking where it went.  He went so far as to tell me that it was actually the neighbor's box, so he gave it to them (the UPS man has delivered some of my neighbor's packages to me during Cmas, so it was plausible, but I still didn't believe him).  Since my birthday was the next day, I let it go, because I wanted it to be a surprise.

I woke up on my bday and got ready for work.  When I finally got to the kitchen to make my breakfast shake, I noticed a HUGE, wrapped box on the dining room table and my doggie halloween gift bag.  That definitely explained why it took Drew so long to come to bed the night before.  Sneaky, sneaky.  There was also a card. I went ahead and opened my StoryPeople card (Drew knows me so well!), and waited on the presents cause I wanted him to be there for me opening them (he was still in the bed).  He actually got out of bed before I left for work so I would/could open my presents.

I went for the bag first because it was smaller and looked more manageable.  It was a Slow Cooker recipe book!  I immediately knew what was in the box!  A slow cooker that I'd had on my Amazon wishlist.  I had asked for one for cmas, and hadn't gotten it, so I put it on my birthday list.  Drew knew if I didn't get it for my birthday I was going to buy it for myself anyways.

Sadly, I had to open my presents and run, but I was definitely excited!  I was able to get out of work early that day, which was awesome.  You know your coworkers don't know you well when they don't even know its your birthday.

It was definitely buttercream icing.

When I came home for lunch, Drew was icing my birthday cake.  That was pretty exciting.  He'd made 2 round funfetti cakes, chocolate mousse told hold them together and had attempted my buttercream icing recipe... except that he ran out of powdered sugar.  Nonetheless, the effort was still there, kisses were exchanged and I said that we'd eat it no matter what!

The mousse was a little too dark chocolate for me, and the icing was a little too buttery for both of us.  I told Drew that I'd make new icing and we could scrape off the buttery-cream and replace it with better icing.  I did a few days later and it was MUCH better.  The cake was delightful no matter what, cause Drew made it for me.  ;)

Since it was my birthday, I had to decide dinner plans.  In my family, we always go out for birthday dinner, and the birthday person gets to pick what restaurant.  I really wanted seafood.  Which actually proved to be more of an experience than Drew or I could have imagined.  We picked a local Southern Maryland seafood place that was in no-man's-land from the help of Yelp.com.  When we arrived, there were actually 2 of the same type of restaurant at the end of the street where we had directions for.  One looked like a restaurant and the other looked like... well a shady bar, imo.  We opted for the one that looked like a restaurant because it had cars in front of it.

Apparently, most of the cars belonged to the employees.  Nevertheless, we still ate there, since I'd wanted seafood.  Drew ordered some large platter of stuff and I ordered soft shell crabs.  Everything on the menu was pretty expensive, so I figured we'd at least get a decent amount of food.  Eh, not so much.  I also had never had soft shell crab before, and I was more thinking crab legs than crab body.  Lesson learned.  Luckily, Drew shared some of his food with me so I wouldn't starve.  I definitely wasn't impressed, although the hushpuppies were decent.

After our BFE experience, we traveled back into civilization (if you can call anything in Southern Maryland "civilized"), and headed to Twist, the only liquor store in town that doesn't look like you're going to get mugged in the parking lot.  Drew and I had decided to do some drinking and I suggested shots night.  The downside to this was that I only had Sailor Jerry, Cruzan coconut rum, Malibu, Amaretto, and 2 things of Absolut vodka.  So for shots night, I pretty much had to build my liquor cabinet from scratch.  I spent $127 at the liquor store.  Apparently for every $500 you spend you get a $20 store credit, so I signed up for that wonderful, alcoholic enabling program, since I was already over 1/5th of the way there.  We bought so many bottles that they took a wine box and put all the liquors in it for easier carrying.  Thats when you know someone is serious business, when they carry a box out of the liquor store.  Screw the brown bags buddy!

We also stopped by the grocery store for the essential mixer juices/stuffs.  Fully stocked up, we headed back home.  Drew turned on the Craig Ferguson stand up from Netflix, which I only partially paid attention to.  Despite his Scottish accent, he just kept making animal noises, which wasn't funny to me... even as I got drunk.

Properly bartending.

A few nights prior to my birthday, Drew and I had decided to have some drinks and he started to make them without even adding ice.  Quickly, the bartender in me was exclaiming, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"  Drew was confused of course, but since I'd questioned his pouring authority, I was delegated to make the drinks from then on out.  Automatically, on my birthday I was the bartender.  Which was ok with me.

For a detailed list of what we drank that night.. click here.

Drew suggested some pacing, but that wasn't my style.  Since we'd started drinking around 9, by midnight I was ready to pass out.  Now I know why Rena and I never started drinking till late (despite that fact that it was usually because someone was coming home late from work).

All in all, it was an awesome birthday.  I could get all mushy, but I won't break the internet pda rules.  Lets just say, I was glad Drew was here.  :)

These pics are from the night that we were drinking earlier in the week... this can of pineapple juice was sent from the devil...

Trying to open the pineapple juice.
This is the start of Drew's WTF face.

It quickly became ridiculous how difficult this can was to open!
These are only half of the marks that were made in attempt to open this can.....
At least we were persistent!

Eventually, Drew was able to open the can, but not after we'd both tried to open it.  He blamed the can's lip when I threatened to get a knife and just stab it until I made a big enough hole to pour from (no, nothing about that sounded safe, but that was the frustration level we were at, and I'd vowed not to throw anything anymore).  Eventually, we were able to enjoy some Corazon sunrises (ice, coconut rum, pineapple juice, splash of grenadine).


PS.  Teh Bear got me a slow cooker, a slow cooker recipe book, and a stay at a B&B in Williamsburg.

Teh Bear made pizza sauce with the cooker!  Twice.  hehehehe..
The first batch was really good, then it burnt overnight.
The 2nd batch... well, lets just say the recipe makes a lot and I'm still using the sauce.