M's Birthday

 Cookie cake, accessorized by Amanda Michael

 M's friends waiting for him to blow out the candle.

 The amazing gift wrapping options you can find at your local dollar store.

Celebrating with an aged bottle of Dogfish Head's Bitches Brew.

celebrate part 3

 And finally, on M's actual birthday saturday, I baked him cupcakes. His favorite kind, topped with pieces of his favorite candy bar. Then I brought them to him at work.

German Chocolate Almond Joy Cupcakes. No awesome recipes here, unfortunately. These were strictly box mix and canned frosting. But still delicious!

celebrate part 2

 M's birthday was Saturday, and he had to work. So the night before I took him out to dinner. I was hoping he would choose two of the other options I threw out to him (Cafe NOLA, or Dinosaur...two awesome places we haven't tried yet). But it was snowy, and those places required a longer drive. So we ended up at Nikko Sushi buffet. Which I was fine with. Because anywhere you can stuff your face silly with delicious sushi is fine by me!

 This was my first plate, those rolls with avocado were so good I definitely went back for seconds.

 Ok guys, here is a secret you might not know: ice cream comes with your buffet meal. But here's the weird part...they don't TELL you...you have to KNOW about it and ask. Then it gets weirder: we asked our waitress for the ice cream and she was super helpful, offering us vanilla, chocolate. or strawberry. But I'll let you in on another secret: they also have Green Tea and Red Bean. So not only do you have to know the secret of asking, you also have to know to ask for the secret secret ice cream flavors too! Weird, right? 

So anyway, we both had a scoop of Green Tea ice cream, and it was delicious.

And I actually did my makeup to go out, which is a rare thing lately. But M forgot to take my picture while we were out, so here's a recent self port with my now-growing out short haircut.

celebrate part 1

After taking M out for dinner (stay tuned tomorrow for that post) we were invited by his birthday sharing friend to go to the CD release show for two local musicians: Sean Rowe and Railbird.

 Sean Rowe opened his set with accompaniment by three members of Railbird.

The space where the show took place was really neat, it's an old church converted into a performance / art space.

 Sean Rowe was celebrating the official release of his new record on Anti, pretty awesome accomplishment! Anti has a roster of some of today's best bands, he's in good company!

 Railbird is from Saratoga, NY. They kind of remind me of female fronted, experimental psychedelic pop rock...at times reminiscent of Blonde Redhead. Their set was definitely captivating.

 After the show, we headed right for Biergarten because M and his friend wanted to share birthday boots when the 25th turned into the 26th. But the Biergarten has a strict policy that even if it's past midnight, you can't get your birthday boot beer until the EVENING of your birthday...which meant the bartender would serve M's friend, but refused to give M a birthday boot unless we came back saturday night. So, disappointed, the boys decided to skip the boot, and both just got giant beers instead. We did NOT go back saturday night to get M a boot.

We were there late, and it was a snowy night, so the place was pretty empty. Which was great for me, because I was finally able to take this clear photo of my favorite corner of the room. Love the stacked wood and antelope head!

happy birthday, M

Happy Birthday M!

I love you even more than way back when this picture was taken 3 years ago.

birthday birthday part 2

After stuffing ourselves with all the yummy food, we went outside to huddle around a mid-february fire. The moon was full, the temperature was low, and the wind was high. Back inside we went!

birthday birthday part 1

 M and one of his oldest friends have consecutive birthdays that happen to be this friday and saturday.

 M is working on his birthday saturday, so we had a dual party for both of them this past weekend.

 Here are some photos of the delicious spread.

M chatting with our friend Amanda.

m's birthday party

 

 after the show a bunch of people came back to our place for the afterparty/birthday party. i smashed some frosting in m's face as he cut into his birthday cake (german chocolate...yummm!) but no body seemed to capture that moment. here is the aftermath.

  

 it's hard to tell, but there is chocolate frosting smashed all into this side of m's beard. he's about to wash it all off in the kitchen sink.

  

 birthday cake and party poppers

  

 modern art

  

 that's some good cake. but it sat in our fridge for a week because neither m or i wanted to ruin our diets any further.

 

and once things began to die down, the boys fired it back up with an arm wrestling tournament.

aparently after the arm wrestling m did his card trick that i LOVE watching, but i had unfortunately crashed out too early (hello, 4am) to watch. when i found out the next day i was very disappointed. i'm told he pulled it off flawlessly!

severe severe

 

  

  

m's band played a killer set the night after his birthday. probably one of the best shows i've ever seen them play. it was a great show.

hanging out at the venue

 

after m's birthday dinner, we walked across the street to the venue where his band was playing. we had some time to kill before the show started.