So! Yesterday was Rob’s birthday! Did you think about him?

Rob and I are very different when it comes to birthdays. I like to make a big deal out of a person on their birthday. I think that everyone should be made a big deal of sometimes, and what better day than on your birthday? But Rob follows Patton Oswalt’s birthday philosophy (caution: there’s swears):

He does make a big deal out of everyone else’s birthday (including mine), but he doesn’t really care about his own… but he does humour me and let me make it into a Big Thing, at least in our house. Not in public.

So, my big deal-making was spending a couple of days cooking for him. On Monday, when he was at work, I made a cheesecake. After work we stopped by at my parents’ and they gave him their gift from him (a small barbecue which will come in super handy when we do go camping at an undisclosed time).

Yesterday, his actual birthday, I gave him his gift, first thing. He was pretty excited. Then we took the dogs to the vet for more needles. They did not think that this was an appropriate birthday activity AT ALL, just so you know. Especially Sprocket – he had barfed a few times this week, so the vet took his temperature. He’s fine though. A little embarrassed.

When we got home, I was back in the kitchen, making jiggs dinner and a turkey (yes in August. It’s his favourite. Without the pease pudding). While the turkey was cooking and after I’d gotten the potatoes into the slow-cooker, I decorated the cheesecake with strawberries. All in all that cheesecake took a total of probably three hours (not counting time spent cooling)? And it was a work of art. Rob spoke to his parents on the phone and he mentioned what I was doing so they asked for us to send a picture of the turkey and the cake. I took a picture of the cake with my cellphone and texted it to them. And then as I was putting it back in the fridge, it slipped right out of my hands and onto the floor.

Have you ever experienced the Ugly Cry? Believe me, it was in full effect.

Now. It landed plate-side-down. Which means that about 3/4 of it stayed on the plate, and didn’t touch the floor. Rob heard the crash, and the swearing, and the Ugly Cry, so he ran into the kitchen (I had banned him from coming in). He saw what was going on immediately and picked the plate up off the floor. “I’m still eating it”, he said. Even though it was RUINED and UGLY now. The bit that was on the floor was quickly picked up and thrown away (before the dogs got too much of it).

After that crisis was over, Rob was re-stringing his gift when … the bridge broke. This is when I decided that maybe his birthday philosophy makes more sense than I’d been giving it credit for. Luckily I had purchased the warranty for it so I brought it to the store and the only other one they had instore was pink so they had to order a new one. It should take about a week to get here.

After the music store I stopped by my parents’ to say goodbye (Dad is having all kinds of scans and tests done in Halifax today and they were leaving yesterday and staying overnight) and tell them of all the craziness. Dad laughed so hard – all the while saying “I’m not laughing at you babe”.

Then he told a story of one of his first dates with my mom. Mom wanted to cook for him. They had a delicious dinner or roast beef and potatoes and whatever other foods were considered date foods in the 70s. And then, as she was bringing in the dessert (lemon meringue pie – Dad’s favourite), she tripped over the edge of the carpet and dropped it on the floor. And when she was despairing, Dad said “Well, I love upside-down cake, so I’m sure I’m going to love this too”.

So it’s a family tradition.