Hubby's Birthday Weekend

Saturday was Dan's 34th birthday and I tried to make it extra special ... Because he is so stinkin' awesome and he deserves extra specialness. :)

Friday morning, he had a surprise at his desk at work from Blasty: a big happy birthday balloon, a large mocha chocolate chip frappuccino, and the Strokes' new album, Angles. (Blasty has great taste in music!) Dan is obsessed with track #2 and probably has listened to it a hundred times already. The lucky birthday boy enjoyed a random super sunny day by getting off work early and playing golf with his coworkers. I didn't plan anything that evening because I had a reading to attend at Marylhurst, but he was more than happy to relax on the couch all night with Rocco, watching TV with pizza and beer.



Then came more pizza. :) A LOT more pizza. After another game of golf on Saturday, we met up with Carmen and Lorri and their friends, Chris and Jodi with their 7 month old boy, Ashton, at Apizza Scholls, the BEST pizza restaurant in Portland.


We stuffed our faces full of three pies: 1.) A plain pie with house made sausage and "Mama Lil's goathorn peppers" 2.) The Bacon Bianca, with mozzarella, pecorino romano, fresh garlic and herbs, black pepper and sea salt, olive oil, and house cured bacon 3.) Apizza Amore, a margherita pie with hot capicollo (cured pork shoulder).


After dinner, we went next door to JaCiva's for dessert. Lorri special ordered birthday cakes for Dan and Carmen (his birthday is today). She thoughtfully ordered their favorites: Carmie got chocolate raspberry and Dan got carrot cake.


I made a point to give Dan the WHOLE weekend free of household projects, cleaning, or running a zillion errands. So Sunday morning we got up early and did our grocery shopping quickly so that we were back in time to watch the Masters. In addition to the Strokes album, Dan also scored some other really cool gifts. He got Home Depot and Lowes gift cards from family, a blender from Carmen and Lorri, his favorite Little Debbie Easter Basket Cakes from Hobbes, a splatter shield for his frying pans from Rocco, and a gift card from Wifey to Golfsmith, to help get a new driver! ;)

And although it isn't a birthday present, it was perfect timing when his diaper bag arrived today, a gift from Grampy Jim and Granny Char. It's the Scout bag by Petunia Pickle Bottom, and boy, is it super cool. We sold them at Henny Penny and Dan always thought they were totally cool but he was always thinking more along the lines of a fishing bag. :) It's true. A bottle holder? That'll hold a beer can. The wipes case? Fishing weights and hooks. Hee hee. Because of this, I added it to our registry despite the fact that I always made fun of people who bought PPB diaper bags. Everyone I sold them to seemed a little obnoxious because they were buying it for the "brand," and let's be clear: it's an expensive brand. So, it was kind of ironic that once I registered for Dan's bag, I decided to get myself one, too. I couldn't resist looking at the new designs for women. Since I worked at HP, they came up with four new styles, and I quickly fell in love with the "Sashay Satchel" which kind of reminds me of a bowling bag, but you can adjust it and wear it like a backpack. I picked the Tranquil Tulip pattern. Blasty's mom and pop are going to be carrying around his dirty clothes and diapers in style! Ha ha. :)

Dan's bag came with a changing pad, wipes case, stroller clips, and a dirty clothes bag. It is built to last, so Gramps and Granny can be sure it will see many, many years of fishing. As they wrote in their note, "Dad pick[ed] this out so you could use it as a diaper bag and then keep it forever and fish with Bud (Blasty Under Development) for years to come." ;-)