Today is Hugh Hefner's Birthday

It is also Dennis Quaid’s birthday, and Kristen Stewart’s birthday (the girl from Twilight). 

It also happens to be my birthday.  I am 26.  Because I am all grown up (whatever that means), I get to eat cake for breakfast.  Hubby got back into town late Monday night, so he had Tuesday off.  When I came home on Tuesday, I found that he had already baked my cake.

He bakes me a cake every year.  It’s his grandmother’s chocolate pound cake recipe with chocolate frosting.  He writes “Happy Birthday” on it with white icing, and then decorates it. Sometimes, he puts a sprinkling of white sanding sugar on it to make it sparkly (I very much like sparkly things).  Last year he tried to make the “happy birthday” part look whimsical, like a little kid wrote it, so the “r” was backwards, and “happy” is spelled “hapi”, and it had sparkler candles. 

This year, there was no sanding sugar, but I had little tiny candles that were really pretty neon colors and they were spiral-shaped.  And let me tell you, with the lights off, 26 candles makes quite a glow.  I wasn’t sure if I could get them all blown out before I lost my eyebrows (again).  It took 4 VERY big puffs of air to get them all blown out, which is saying something for me, because my dad always said I was full of hot air.  I’ve never had trouble blowing out birthday candles before.

I told Hubby that maybe next year we should double up the candles or use number candles or something so that we don’t burn down the house.

Then I had a big piece (yes!), and Hubby had an also-big piece, and I found the dime.  His family has the wonderful tradition where, after the cake is baked, a clean dime and a button are stuffed into the cake at random points.  Whoever finds the button finds luck and whoever finds the dime finds riches.  I’m taking the remainder of the cake to work today, because I was going to make a key lime poke cake, but Hubby suggested that I just take the rest of the poundcake since we always end up throwing so much of it out anyway.

It’s just very hard for two people to eat an entire poundcake before it goes all fuzzy, and once it’s frosted, it’s not very freezable.  Plus, he figured that, after spending an hour at my shoe fitting on Wednesday night, I wouldn’t feel like coming home and baking a cake.  I love this man, for so many reasons.  He got me another present, two actually.

My betta fish, Kalshnikov, is dying.  He’s nearly three, which is how old my previous betta fish, Spike the Destroyer, was when he died.  I really like the mean, feisty, super-aggressive, solid red ones, so Hubby bought me another one, in the hopes that, if I already have a new one, I won’t cry so bad when Kalashnikov dies.  So, now I have Leonidas.

He’s a bit like both Kalashnikov and Spike.  He tried to eat my finger when I was feeding him (Spike), and when I made faces at him, he made faces back at me, (Kalshnikov).  No word yet on whether he will come to let me scratch his nose like Spike did, though. 

And apparently, Hubby got me another small present that I’m getting tonight.  He got me the Harry Potter movie collection on Blu-Ray about a month ago, so I didn’t think I’d be getting anything else.  My sister’s mailing my present this weekend, and I got fabulous earrings from my mother-in-law.  My dad sent me my present, a tiny camcorder, about three weeks ago.  With it, I was able to watch the very small original video tapes from my wedding, which I can now play and edit myself.  Mom’s giving me money for dance stuff, which I’m excited about.

My shoe fitting went well, but the ones that I need have to be brought from another store, so I’m actually going back next Wednesday to pick them up.  I have very large (10), very narrow feet, with long, skinny toes.  We found shoes that fit in width and length, but the vamp of the shoe was very sloped, and it hurt my second toe on each foot even when I was flat on the ground because the slope rubbed the knuckle part of those toes. 

I found one with a flatter vamp that fit well in the toe box, they just didn’t have it in my size at that store.  So, the fitter is going to bring 3 sizes from the other dance store that they own.  It’s just about the coolest pointe shoe I’ve ever seen.  In the end of the toe box, there is a bit of squishy, yet supportive, foam that’s extra support in addition to the lambswool.  Then, the whole shoe is made with what Bloch calls “thermo morphtechnology”, which means that you can heat it with a hairdryer and then wear it to mold it to your foot, then stick it in your fridge for 5 minutes to set it.

The shank is plastic and therefore virtually indestructible, as opposed to all-leather shanks.  This also means that it’s softer, something I wasn’t sure I could get used to.  Usually, more experienced dancers get softer shanks because their feet are stronger and don’t need the support.  On the other hand, it provides them the ability to get a more pronounced pointe.  A stronger shank is supportive, but it doesn’t bend as well when flexed.

I was able to stand up in them and turn a bit, and found that I still have a very pronounced pointe, what is actually called in the ballet world “banana feet”.  They are highly sought after, and kind of mythical, because you can’t obtain them from training.  Training and practice will increase anyone’s pointe, but only people with high arches and insteps will have a curve across the top of the foot.  I was pretty pleased with myself.  I thought I’d step up into pointe and fall straight over.

Even with the pain of the incorrect shoe, I didn’t fall.  And my feet looked great.  Banana feet are so coveted, that some professional dancers that don’t have them wear these weird bumpy things on top of their feet under their tights, so when they’re en pointe, their feet have that curve on top.  You can tell when they’re wearing them, though, because when they’re flat-footed, they have what looks like a very unattractive tumor/bump on the top of their foot.  Check for it next time you watch a ballerina.

That’s all for now, because I have to put on my tights and go save the world.  Have a great day, Skirt!s.