Tuesday was my birthday.  Pat knew he was going to have to be away for meetings all day that day.  And I do mean, ALL day.  He left here about 6:30 am and returned about 10:30 pm.  Considering we both work from home most of the time and so therefore spend most of our time together, I told him it was okay.  It’s a day.  It’s given me an excuse to spread the celebration out over a week.  Which I’m inclined to do anyway….

Tuesday was beautiful.  In the 70’s, sunny, a beautiful fall day.  Pat made coffee before he left, so right there, the day was off to wonderful start.  It was nice to have the day to myself.  I got showered with lots of birthday wishes from Facebook friends.  I got a few phone calls, the mail brought cards and friends dropped off gifts. I went to the gym, then went and got my favorite cookies (snickerdoodles. I simply cannot make them as good as they do.) from a local bakery and surprised Edie and her pals at school with them for lunch.   I sat in the yard, soaking up sun and reading in the afternoon.  (While doing that, I realized my save Greenleaf Park move made The Hook.  Go me!).  A friend called and said she was at the park, any chance we want to come over?  So off we went….

Where Edie modeled my new crown and declared herself “Queen of the World”and our friend Phoebe “Princess of the World.”  It was a lovely afternoon to be at the park.  Thanks for calling Mo!

Another girlfriend came over, with a bottle of wine in hand.  Her husband has a wine distributorship and he apparently spent some time going through his collection looking for a bottle that I was sure to have not had before.  And indeed, I had never had Georgian wine.  It was nice.  Quite dry, but I love dry wine.  A little bit jammy too, which is another favorite quality I like in a wine. Thank you Ted, it went nicely with…

the chocolate cake yet another girlfriend came by with. 

Yes, I’m a lucky, spoiled girl.  And yes, I did happen to mention to a few friends that my husband wasn’t going to be around on my big day, so don’t they want to come have a glass of wine with me?

Of course, I used that excuse to have friends over for an ‘early’ celebration last Saturday night.  And I’m using it a few more times this upcoming weekend.  I told you I’m good at stretching out the celebration….

So this cake.  Teresa knows the sort of cakes I bake.  She was well aware the bar was set high.  And she did well.  I’ve been calling it a chocolate praline hazelnut mousse cake, which is shorter than the actual name.  It had a crunchy chocolate bottom crust, a cake layer and a mousse layer.  Seriously yum. 

Also, I love that when I asked where she got the recipe from, I was able to reach in the cookbook cabinet and pull out the exact issue of Bon Appetit that featured it on the cover.

All in all, it was a perfectly lovely day.  I did miss my love, but he was home by the time I was ready to crawl into bed.  And he had gifts for me to open Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  And I hear there’s more to come this weekend, when we celebrate again. 

I’m a lucky gal.