Perpetual Party People.

H.'s birthday is this Sunday, but he's got this Friday off, so I figured why not get the festivities started now? I baked a cheesecake last night, but for some reason it had much too much lemon flavor for either of us to stomach. I cringed as I tossed it in the trash, but it had to be done. I baked one this morning to replace it, and neither of us have tried it yet (it's in the fridge, cooling off its toasty buns), for fear of jinxing the flavor. Or maybe our healthy eating habits have kicked in and we don't eat dessert before dinner.

Tonight's dinner was brought to you by the fine people at Chipotoplay. Chipootles. Chipotsley. While H. was hard at work programming up a storm, I was ordering his dinner and accidentally ordered myself some pico de gallo. The man behind the counter asked if I wanted some, I said No, and he put it on my bowl anyway. This is probably the best thing that's happened to me, because I was in pico de gallo spicy denial. That's Latin for confuzzled. See, the last time I ordered pico de gallo, I had one huge spicy bite of something, and blamed it on the cilantro mixed in with those tomatoes. Now that I've tasted it and found it to be nowhere near spicy, I conclude it must have been either the meat or the corn (which sometimes has spicy elements to it) that I skipped over in my spicy blame conclusion. Now I have to go and apologize to those poor tomatoes that I've been shunning.

Tomorrow is Day 2 of H.'s Birthday Weekend, and while I don't have anything planned, I wouldn't put it past me to come up with something festive. Like going to a testosterone-filled war movie or a comic book movie (it's a good thing Tom Cruise As A Spy The Third doesn't come out until Thanksgiving or Christmas or thereabouts). While I do enjoy those films, would it hurt a certain someone to go and watch One Day in theaters? ... Now that I think about it, he might start bleeding from his eyes, and then it would go down in history as the worst birthday weekend ever. Even worse than that one time I got him a five-subject notebook as a birthday present (he totally wanted something useful!).

The day after that is H.'s actual birthday, and I would like for us to go out to eat somewhere for lunch. What's that? Dinner is more romantic? Well kids, dinner would coincide with the football preseason game H. is so revved up for. It is his birthday, I suppose. But hey, if we did lunch, then I wouldn't have to cook dinner because there would be leftovers! I like this concept very, very much.

Enough about my all-star husband. I would like to announce that I applied to a retail job today. BedBath&Beyond, you better watch out. I'm going to be CEO of the company in two months time. We'll stop selling towels and linens and start selling more of those Crackpots. And we'll have a whole marketing division dedicated to coming up with drug related product names. We're expanding our horizons people, grabbing those neglected demographics and showing them that they, too, can have quality products in their homes. One day, BB&B, one day.

The man that interviewed me said that they have 27 part-time employees and two full-time employees. I don't mind part-time in the slightest. I'm going crazy sitting around here everyday trying to come up with new ways to entertain myself (like that treacherous mountain driving trip). I might even go back to Kohl's and request full-time, or at least part-time, and get to wear the badge that says "I work two jobs - FEAR ME." I'm sure somebody makes those. When the guy asked why I wanted to work at his store, the first thing that popped out of my mouth was, "Because it smells so good in here!" I'm glad he laughed, because that could have been a very awkward moment in the interview process. They do sell some of the most amazing scented candles, though. It permeates from the back of the building to the front door. In the end, he said that he'd recommend me to his store manager, who would review next week all of the applications they collected this week. That gives me a couple of days to find a second job.

Oh! I almost forgot! First stop on my second job adventure was Hallmark (a hundred feet from BB&B) to see if they needed any extra people. Unfortunately, they weren't hiring, but I did find the cutest little figurines. They're vegetable animals and I totally want one. (These are from my phone, so please excuse the quality.)

Suuuuuuper cute carrot fish.

Most adorable carrot chipmunks. 

Radish/beet squirrel. So cute!

I can't find a link on Hallmark's website, but here's a list of them on a different website. If you scroll down past the ornaments, you'll see the figurines. Personally, I like the figurines better, just because it doesn't have to be Christmas to have them out.

I also found something that I would get for my Mom in a heartbeat, but I remember her telling me that students steal things off of her desk. I think this should be your new mantra, Mom.

Appropriately placed on Teacher display stand. 

Well, that's all from the desert. In another hour or so, H. and I will dig into that cheesecake, and it better be lacking any lemon flavor. No ifs ands or buts about it.