Birthday Cake Photos

May sixteenth was Angus' birthday. I bought him the Buena Vista Social Club DVD produced by Ry Cooder and a double CD of the music. He loves it. Old Cuban folk music from the fifties. Here's his cake just after I poured the bittersweet chocolate icing over it.
I told him to pick out a recipe and I'd bake whatever he wanted. He wanted an orange rum cake. It was delicious. I should post the recipe.

59 candles.

I was a brat and ran around the last minute to find enough candles. He said one package of 24 would do. Nope. I don't think so.
With all the rum in the cake, we were speculating that the whole thing might burst into flame, but it didn't.

The cake was so good, it did not need ice cream. (Good choice, honey.)

Here's my baby blowing out all the candles. We didn't help him.

The Sunday before Angus' birthday, Andrew had his birthday. I made an asparagus quiche and rhubarb strawberry pie for Sunday brunch.

(For some reason I took about 8 photos showing the whole process of rolling out the pie dough, mixing the fruit, fruit in the pan, putting on the top crust, etc. I thought it all looked very pretty at the time.)

Also went out and bought myself a new pair of silky pajamas. They are cream colored with red hearts. I love them and feel very feminine in them.

I've been writing stories and perfecting them for the last couple of weeks. Angus says one of them is the best thing I've ever written.

Read three collections of Alice Munro's short stories this month. I'm almost finished with another: headship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage.

She always succeeds in surprising me. There's always a twist, something going on that I didn't realize would wind up being the point of the story. Some of it is quite poignant.

Saw Roy McDonald at Covent Garden yesterday and we talked for over an hour. It was raining outside. He paid me for the copy of my book that I left him. He was so enthusiastic about my book. Said he really likes the prayers.

Roy is not false in any way and it was just what I needed to hear.

Also, someone bought 25 of my "Democrats: For The People" bumper sticker. That's very gratifying. I'm glad I made it.

Went out for a cappucino tonight which is why I'm still wide awake. But I'm winding down.

Oh, yes. Here are photos of the CD cover and back. These are neat, but it's the DVD with its interviews of the great old musicians that I found so wonderful. The last member of this group, Ibrahim Ferrer, just died a month or two ago. Ry Cooder did the music world a big service when he recorded these musicians and filmed them for posterity.
Angus and I went to see Thank You For Smoking on Wednesday night. Quite wry and a very clever approach.

It was warm and humid here today and apparently will be warm and humid tomorrow. I wore capris and sandals. Very nice.

It's four o'clock a.m. Saturday night (Sunday morning actually) and I need to crawl into bed. No Rumi or pie photos tonight.

But I will say I woke this morning laughing. I had a silly, fun dream - the first in years where I woke up in delight.

That was a pure gift.