Friday was Mer’s (35th!) birthday.We’ve had a good weekend of celebrating. Friday was a work day, so no special day off for Meredith or anything like that. Friday was an end-of-semester exam day at CVCA though, so at least Mer only had a couple of hours of official duties (and merely spent most of the rest of the workday grading instead). Mer did decide that she would not do any grading Friday evening or Saturday so that we could have fun together.

Every year for 35 years, Mer’s mom has made her a red velvet cake for her birthday. She has perfected a way to mail it safely, and so we got the happy package at CVCA on Friday. To start off the festivities, we both exercised on the treadmill when we got home. While Mer was taking her turn, I put her cake together (the cake does require some assembly). It came out very well this year – some years I don’t have the knack for getting the frosting spread evenly. I reheated some ham calzone, and we settled down to watch two movies that we’d borrowed from our friend Dubbs. The first feature of the evening was The Bourne Identity. It was a little strange for me, in that I had seen the sequel on a plane a few years ago. It was good to finally see the first film. It was well done, and it had enough interesting things going on with who Jason Bourne was that Meredith even liked it (it wasn’t just endless gun battles and explosions).

We then watched the second film of the night, The Notebook. I knew nothing about this film, except that Mer did warn me that it was a chick flick and that it might make her cry (it had a sweet old man in it). It was a really good film, and it was a chick flick, and it did make Mer cry and made me quite misty. It took a little getting used to because the leading actress was Rachel McAdams, who was a major player (ha!) in the first season of Slings and Arrows. After a few minutes we both got used to the new character. My birthday present to Mer was to give her an hour-long foot rub while we were watching the second movie. Happy birthday!

Saturday the fun continued. Mom had sent us $20 for Mer’s birthday with the rather unusual instruction to enjoy a breakfast on her. So, we did just that. We went up to Hudson and went to Yours Truly, a local chain restaurant that has good food and serves breakfast all the time. I ordered a very plain hot chocolate and a very good orange juice, and we both got the Killit Skillits – two eggs any way on top of a mound of hashbrowns, two thick pieces of toast, bacon and sausage. Mmmmmm. Not very good for you, but boy, was it good.

We then went to the Hudson local bookstore, The Learned Owl, to get Mer her 2008 calendar. She uses her calendars as mini-diaries, writing in each day’s space what we did that day. Because we waited, we got 50% off!

We then went home and Mer went to get groceries while I napped (I got the better end of that deal). When Mer got home, she got in bed next to me and read, so that was companionable. We then got spiffed up to go out on the town (the town being Hudson again). Mer suggested going to Hudson’s Old Whedon Grille, which was a fantastic idea. It is an old store that has been renovated into a casual restaurant. I got yet another fairly plain hot chocolate, and a wonderful chicken parmesan sandwich which comes with the Grille’s fantastic fries. Yum. Mer got a cup of chili, which she said was good but strong and recommended it in cup sizes (she thought the bowl would be too much).

What birthday with the Riordans would be complete without dessert? We meandered over to Hudson’s Cold Stone Creamery, where a very fun and talented server balled my ice cream up and tossed it in the air and caught it in the bowl. Very nice. I got the Oreo Overload with peanut butter cups added, and Mer helped me eat it.

We finished off the evening by heading over to Actors’ Summit theater to see a production of Proof. Proof is the story of a young woman whose brilliant (but mentally ill) mathematician father has just passed away. The play is based on strong relationships (as good theater often is), and how those relationships are strained when no one will believe the young woman when she claims to have written a ground-breaking mathematical proof (they all think the father did it). Excellent play – we’ve seen it twice, and both productions were great. Adding to the fun of the Actors’ Summit production was that three of the four characters are really related in real life (father-daughter-daughter’s husband). The set for the play was really striking as well – lots of real wood made the set harmonious, and the partial walls defined the space without obstructing sight lines. Very well done.

So, all in all, it was a really great weekend. Happy birthday, love!