My special day

[Card courtesy of the nerdess]

I had a birthday last week. I have 28 years now. If I were to graph trends related to getting older, one of the factors on an upward sweep at this point is the baking skills of my friends. I have fond memories of the box cakes in college, but lime-coconut cupcakes from scratch? Expert blueberry pie, still warm? A noble attempt at profiteroles despite being short a few ingredients? I’m feeling good about this.

Another upward trend: the resourcefulness of my friends. I got some good loot. Highlights follow.

A book of postcards…

with such gems as…

Documented underboob, which I immediately turned into a magnet to keep the other chick company on the fridge. I now have an underboob collection. I imagine it will grow.

A check from my sister with this memo: For rat film production.

ART.

I know. It’s amazing. He sneers at me while I make coffee in the morning. And because of a mirror on the opposite wall, he does it again when I walk in the front door.

W and The Kee made the long cold journey to my city and state and I finally got in on the ground floor of some of their inside jokes. Most the activities I planned for us fell through. I made them promise to go snowshoeing no matter how cold it was but at -7F it was, in fact, too cold. The Miss America Pageant viewing I had lined up for Saturday night was a bust because my landlords canceled the cable. Luckily there was plenty of entertainment to be had from the Kee’s new snuggie to fill the void.

Another positive: because they were maybe getting a little stir-crazy, they were more receptive to bad ideas, like giving Whitney a faux hawk. At one point it looked as bad as this.

He stressed out a tiny bit but at some point, though it never really got much better, he seemed to change his mind about it. Here is he completely at home with his pony hawk.

My tree-house apartment seems almost too big without them, but I find comfort in the empty snuggie box and the puddle of human hair on my porch.

Sweater Thursday XL

An off-white oddly cropped number that washes me out and pairs well with a high-waisted skirt. We made it to 40! I think that’s too many sweaters in this damned economy, but I don’t care.

Sweater Thursday XXXIX

Look, I’m folding last week’s freshly laundered sweater. That seems significant.

I was waiting for someone to use that Napoleon Dynamite line on me today about puffy sleeves  but no one did.

Hello, Karl Marx.

I clicked on a link to this book, Veeps: Profiles in Insignificance: The American Vice Presidential Pantheon from Adams to Cheney, and this happened.

Is Amazon playing a joke on me because I am looking at a book that makes fun of vice presidents? Has something like this ever happened to you? I tried to Google things like “Amazon thinks I am a communist” but all I got were a bunch of books on Karl Marx at Amazon. I clicked on the recommendations Amazon had for Karl based on items he already owns, and here is a sampling – a potato peeler, a bottle opener, and a book on how to organize the proletariat.

Sweater Thursday XXXVIII

I chose my warmest sweater for the coldest day. It’s kind of weirdly shrunken and big at the same time and rides way up in the back. Sometimes I get too bold with the washing machine.

I made people come over for dinner just to break in my new TV trays. Katie gave them to me for Christmas, I think inspired by this post from over a year ago. Amazing. I can’t stop being excited about them. And I think my table manners are bound to improve with my plate off my lap. Just look how happy Cinnamon Tingle is with the eating arrangements. Or it’s the brand new coffee-bean-cabled-turtleneck sweater. Or she is humoring me so she can get back to her wine.

I made polenta for my guests and I was feeling pretty good about it when that first picture was taken but it turned out later I forgot two ingredients, including the cheese. Ug. When have I ever forgotten the cheese? But fried up and broiled with cheese on top? Good enough.

I know it’s boring to talk about the weather but let’s go back to that part. Today was negative twenty something degrees. That means my overheated apartment is probably exactly 100 degrees warmer than the snowscape outside.

Some math:

78F – -22F = 100 (Remember subtraction with negative numbers? It’s a little tricky.)

It’s just so… cold. And I want Heidi to know I wore tights today (2 pairs) and I’m still smug about it.