Technically B-Squared’s birthday is today but since Big Metal and she had a conference to attend in San Antonio this weekend (leaving today) we celebrated last night.
Big Metal and I concocted a plan to surprise her with a celebration. Under the guise of a “low-key” dinner at a local dining establishment, we told her that I would pick them both up around 9ish. In reality, we were having a few people over for a backyard birthday bash, complete with white Christmas lights and candles for ambiance. So while B-Squared was upstairs in her pad, getting ready for her aforementioned dinner, I was downstairs, commandeering the neighbor’s kitchen as my staging area. I had prepped most everything at my house…the (Mexican-themed) menu was as follows:
- Blackbean and Corn Salad (one of the fine recipes I stole from my mother prior to leaving CA)
- Chicken and Shrimp, skewered with an assortment of bell peppers and onions, thrown on the BBQ.
- Refried beans
And of course, an assortment of cake-flavored desserts. With candles.
So while I skewered our dinner downstairs, P-Money sneaked over and decorated for us. In the meantime, I was cutting the deadline to “pick the girls up” close and B-Squared was getting low blood sugar and was wondering what the heck was taking me so long (understandable since we told I had left the house a while ago and still “wasn’t” there)
Finally, we were ready and B-Squared came down and to her surprise (hooray!) she saw the backyard and we told her of our change in plans.
We ended up having a lovely time, despite it being in the high 80s at 10pm and while it maybe wasn’t quite the low-key dinner that we had told B-Squared it would be, I think she enjoyed herself. We laughed a good bit and ate and drank and stared longingly at cupcakes and puffin cake (definition: not a particular type of cake [eg Bundt cake] but a cake, shaped and decorated like a puffin. And delicious-flavored. Thank you LB and B-Dub!)
And thus the pictoral evidence of the party begins:
