Yesterday I volunteered at the first annual Veterans Day Food and Wine festival for the middle part of the day.  When I got home, Dave had cut out “happy birthday” letters and put them up on the wall with cut-out balloons. I helped him clean, he ran some more errands, we cleaned some more and then we cleaned a bit.

At 6:30 I said, Okay, let’s relax before the party.  We watched Thank You for Smoking and then got stuff ready for the party.  Dave had bought 2 bottles of wine, every kind of cheese in the world, some crackers, olives, grapes, veggies/hummus, bread for dipping in balsamic vinegar & truffle oil (mmmm), and ice cream.

It wasn’t every kind of cheese in the world- but lots of them.  Among others: Borough Market cheddar, smoked gouda, Emmi Walserstolz, Drunken Goat, a hard white cheese with peppercorns, and a bunch of others whose names I can’t say.  O to the M to the G. It was all awesome.

My favorite, though, was the Stilton.  It’s a harder blue cheese that we fell in love with last Christmas.  Stilton and some plum or fig spread and some crackers?  It’s happiness.  Every time I ate it I’d sing, “Stilton is my boyfriend!” in the tune of the song in this video. (By the way if you don’t know the story that goes with that video, check it out!)

Anyway, the party was good, Neha made me a key lime cake, Dave got me Key Lime Pie ice cream, and we got peanut butter fudge for the vegans.  As for presents, I got the gift cards I asked for, a ton of wine which was all consumed, a gift card to The Blue Nile (my fave Ethiopian restaurant), some mix cds, and an orchid from someone who clearly has not seen my Orchid Ownership Track Record.

And I got lots of compliments on my fish tank water garden.

So, yes, Dave did an awesome job on my birthday.  Way better than last year.

And it’s still my birthday, so I’m going to go chill.