B's birthday

It's B's birthday, and a big round number and the occasion of her retirement earlier this week. So particular celebrations were in order, but it was just us.

For presents, I got her some books on Kindle, including one current-affairs book she'd particularly asked for. Amazon has a button you can click to purchase a Kindle book for another person; you then enter their e-mail and the desired date of delivery, and it's done. B. prefers Kindle over other online platforms, so that makes it tidy.

And she wanted a chocolate cake. Instead of buying one from a grocer's bakery, I decided to revert to making one on my own from a mix, though I haven't done this in some four years. The most challenging part was remembering where we kept tools like the spatula and the beater attachments for the electric mixer (which is kept at the other end of the kitchen). Baking was successful once I determined to ignore entirely the temperature settings on the oven, which live in a world of their own, probably a Hot Jupiter. Only problem was that I forgot entirely to frost between the cake layers. Delivered with a full singing of the birthday song and flaming candles shaped like big digits.

For dinner we ordered out from our favorite local Mexican place. The online ordering process gave a good example of things you already need to know in order to understand how to do something. B. wanted a super burrito and asked to have the salsa left off. "Salsa fresca" was indeed listed as one of the ingredients of the burrito, but the list below where you could check off things you wanted omitted listed no salsa. It was only previous experience that led me to guess (and then confirm) that "pico" on that list was short for pico de gallo, which is another name for salsa fresca, so that's what I needed to omit.

This place has a good pickup service. Place the order online, wait ten minutes, drive over there and find your order packed up in a bag, with a receipt taped to it, on the table outside. Very efficient. I've done this three times now with no mistakes.