Birthday (2)

When my friend Shawn and my sister Sharon and I play multi-player games together, I like to talk. In fact, I like a conversation or at least some witless banter to be going on at all times. This tendency is not something my partners in time wasting share so I end up initiating or holding up more than my end of the conversation. In a long gaming session, I'll eventually run out of things to say. Sometimes, I'm just out of steam and stop talking so much (much to the relief of my cohorts, I'm sure). At other times though, I'm bored and I want my less verbose companions to initiate some conversation.

Since both Sharon ad Shawn are relatively content to sit back and play the game in peace, it takes a bit of a prodding to get them to make the effort. At these times, I have an emotional weapon in my psychological arsenal that I take out and fire to get their mouths moving. I threaten to fill the silence by raving about how wonderful and perfect my husband is. Since they've heard more than enough of that sort of thing already, they're strongly motivated by this threat to start talking. On this date, each year, my faithful readers can expect to share their pain as it's my husband's birthday.

If you're wondering what makes him deserving of all my exultation, you're in luck as I'm more than happy to go on about his positive character traits. My husband tells me he loves me everyday, several times a day. He has the sort of patience a saint would envy. He's very intelligent but not arrogant about it. He's affectionate in the way women crave, offering hugs and kisses but not as bribes to achieve a lecherous goal. He's funny, sweet-tempered and optimistic about life. He also works hard so I can stay home and relax because he's concerned about my health. My husband is everything most women say they want in a man before they end up marrying some jerk who fits none of their professed criteria. I'm immensely grateful that he's my partner.

Last year, my husband didn't want a cake for his birthday but this year I stumbled across a recipe for an "Elvis Cake" which sounded like it might suit him so I gave it a try. Since my husband loves banana, peanut butter and chocolate separately and he had tried the Elvis Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and found it pretty good, he opted for a cake this year rather than the celebratory pie he chose last year. I made the cake above and 6 cupcakes (for him to take to work and offer to students if he chose to). I haven't actually tasted the cake myself but I tasted the frosting it is incredible (though I cut the frosting recipe volume in half as it was far more frosting than we needed and added a teaspoon of vanilla to it). My husband pronounced the cake "different" but "very good". I'm thinking the same frosting on a white, vanilla or chocolate cake might be nice for the less adventurous.

As was the case last year on my husband's 44th birthday, he has to work so we won't be able to properly celebrate until Monday when he has a day off. Of course, given how wonderful he is, I do my best to celebrate his presence on this planet each and every day.