happy birthday to me!

birthdays

Took Ayva to Brush Fire yesterday for a very belated birthday date. Was way more fun than I expected and I now understand why painting ceramics was all the rage back in the what... 60s? 70s? My kitchen scrubby frog definitely seems of a 70s vintage. I painted a new water bowl for the cats, O painted a bulls eye dish and Ayva did a frog. But not a scrubby frog....

This was followed by a trip to Dairy Queen, so a pretty darn good evening. Looking forward to next week when we get to pick up our ceramic masterpieces. But in the meantime...

My beautiful sister and I are heading to our cabin at Crooked Mountain this weekend for some birthday celebrating of our own. We're about half way between each of our birthdays so we'll make some toasts, eat some birthday cookies and engage in some highly competitive Aggravation playing. Can't wait!!!

a good year for cake

I'm guessing that the photo above is from my 7th birthday. Don't remember the exact year but I do remember the cakes! We were traveling to visit my dad's family in BC in late July. I had a birthday cake in Brandon before we left and then a series of cakes as we visited relative after relative. Although I look like the least happy person in this picture, I was mighty impressed by the doll cake my Auntie Corrine had made for me. It was truly something else.

My aunt doesn't make me birthday cakes anymore but that's okay because now I have Marilee and her impressive baking skills in my life. Et voila! The Groovy Girl cake!

And that's not all. By showing up at Marilee's at just the right time, I was able to mooch part of a peach cake that was fresh out of the oven. O's verdict was it was the best non-chocolate cake ever. I'll go one further and say it was the best cake of any kind ever.

Tonight, Elizabeth and I are going to Baked Expectations to belatedly celebrate our birthdays. I definitely see a piece of old fashioned chocolate cake in my near future!

forty two + two days

Feeling old. This article in the G&M didn't help, though it did give me a laugh. I particularly liked his line about friends helping him feel better by being fatter, balder and older. This rang especially true yesterday because I ran into someone I used to hang out with in the 90s, and even though I'm so tired that I feel like I'm 82, at least I don't look like I've been a two pack a day smoker for the last 20 years. Definitely cheered me up.

And then Fatima cheered me up further by reminding me that 42 is the answer to life, the universe and everything. Other than the disconcertingly high number of people who have died at age 42 (okay... just three... but one of them is Elvis!), this list of 42 things about the number 42 is very interesting:

1. Queen Victoria's husband Prince Albert died aged 42; they had 42 grandchildren and their great-grandson, Edward VIII, abdicated at the age of 42.
2. The world's first book printed with movable type is the Gutenberg Bible which has 42 lines per page.
3. On page 42 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry discovers he's a wizard.
4. The first time Douglas Adams essayed the number 42 was in a sketch called "The Hole in the Wall Club". In it, comedian Griff Rhys Jones mentions the 42nd meeting of the Crawley and District Paranoid Society.
5. Lord Lucan's last known location was outside 42 Norman Road, Newhaven, East Sussex.
6. The Doctor Who episode entitled "42" lasts for 42 minutes.
7. Titanic was travelling at a speed equivalent to 42km/hour when it collided with an iceberg.
8. The marine battalion 42 Commando insists that it be known as "Four two, Sir!"
9. In east Asia, including parts of China, tall buildings often avoid having a 42nd floor because of tetraphobia – fear of the number four because the words "four" and "death" sound the same (si or sei). Likewise, four 14, 24, etc.
10. Elvis Presley died at the age of 42.
11. BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs was created in 1942. There are 42 guests per year.
12. Toy Story character Buzz Lightyear's spaceship is named 42.
13. Fox Mulder's apartment in the US TV series The X Files was number 42.
14. The youngest president of the United States,Theodore Roosevelt, was 42 when he was elected.
15. The office of Google's chief executive Eric Schmidt is called Building 42 of the firm's San Francisco complex.
16. The Bell-X1 rocket plane Glamorous Glennis piloted by Chuck Yeager, first broke the sound barrier at 42,000 feet.
17. The atomic bomb that devastated Nagasaki, Japan, contained the destructive power of 42 million sticks of dynamite.
18. A single Big Mac contains 42 per cent of the recommended daily intake of salt.
19. Cricket has 42 laws.
20. On page 42 of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Jonathan Harker discovers he is a prisoner of the vampire. And on the same page of Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein reveals he is able to create life.
21. In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Friar Laurence gives Juliet a potion that allows for her to be in a death-like coma for "two and forty hours".
22. The three best-selling music albums – Michael Jackson's Thriller, AC/DC's Back in Black and Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon – last 42 minutes.
23. The result of the most famous game in English football – the world cup final of 1966 – was 4-2.
24. The type 42 vacuum tube was one of the most popular audio output amplifiers of the 1930s.
25. A marathon course is 42km and 195m.
26. Samuel Johnson compiled the Dictionary of the English Language, regarded as one of the greatest works of scholarship. In a nine-year period he defined a total of 42,777 words.
27. 42,000 balls were used at Wimbledon last year.
28. The wonder horse Nijinsky was 42 months old in 1970 when he became the last horse to win the English Triple Crown: the Derby; the 2000 Guineas and the St Leger.
29. The element molybdenum has the atomic number 42 and is also the 42nd most common element in the universe.
30. Dodi Fayed was 42 when he was killed alongside Princess Diana.
31. Cell 42 on Alcatraz Island was once home to Robert Stroud who was transferred to The Rock in 1942. After murdering a guard he spent 42 years in solitary confinement in different prisons.
32. In the Book of Revelation, it is prophesised that the beast will hold dominion over the earth for 42 months.
33. The Moorgate Tube disaster of 1975 killed 42 passengers.
34. When the growing numbers of Large Hadron Collider scientists acquired more office space recently, they named their new complex Building 42.
35. Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has 42 illustrations.
36. 42 is the favourite number of Dr House, the American television doctor played by Hugh Laurie.
37. There are 42 US gallons in a barrel of oil.
38. In an episode of The Simpsons, police chief Wiggum wakes up to a question aimed at him and replies "42".
39. Best Western is the world's largest hotel chain with more than 4,200 hotels in 80 countries.
40. There are 42 principles of Ma'at, the ancient Egyptian goddess – and concept – of physical and moral law, order and truth.
41. Mungo Jerry's 1970 hit "In the Summertime", written by Ray Dorset, has a tempo of 42 beats per minute.
42. The band Level 42 chose their name in recognition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and not – as is often repeated – after the world's tallest car park.

forty two

Amazingly delish cake made by O.
Sprinkles on top courtesy of Kana.

Going.... going...

38...

...but feeling like I'm 100. So tired thanks to a thunder storm and some crazy cats last night. As a result, spending the day doing not too much. O is making me dinner. We're going to watch a movie. Probably a couple of phone calls. That's about it.

Had a good weekend. Brandon Folk Fest was a bust. Music was mediocre to bad, bad, bad. Don't get me started about the "abortion" song. But dinner with my family, and Sunday at Minnedosa beach more than made up for the assault on our ears on Saturday.

A few pics to share...

Gorgeous drive to Brandon:

Cake and fresh picked strawberries (thanks Mama!):

Got to meet the beautiful Baby B:

Bought a birthday gift at the Old Church with the "flat gift" from my mom. No place to put it yet, but think it is so charming and I couldn't resist: