And to me, as well. 🙂

Went to The Cheesecake Factory yesterday for a dual birthday lunch with my dad -- when we ordered a slice of cheesecake, they brought it out with a candle and sang and everything. I know some people find that sort of thing embarrassing, but I think it's rather sweet! I miss candles, too -- I can't remember the last time I got to blow one out for my birthday. I really enjoyed it, such that I think I'm going to buy some scented candles for my room so I can light them and make wishes and blow them out whenever I feel like it.

But while I have no candles on hand at the moment, I did buy some cotton-candy-flavored vodka for my birthday! It actually does have a bit of a cotton candy taste, but what's even more interesting is that it works quite well in wasabitinis. The recipe I've adapted in my home attempts calls for for vodka, sake, and sugar syrup, and I'd just been using sugar since I can't be bothered with actually making syrup. Here, however, the cotton-candy-flavored vodka takes care of the sweetness, so the drink really just requires it, sake (in a 1:1 ratio) and a spoonful of the wasabi powder. I took photos for an upcoming Scary-Crayon spotlighting of the recipe. 🙂

And these are "presents" I received from myself! Granted, I didn't buy them all at once and really not for my birthday -- Impulse Creations has a reserve function that allows customers to have items held so that they can be shipped all at once, so I tend to let my purchases there accumulate until they reach a certain volume. I've been amassing this particular haul since August -- I think the last haul spanned purchases from January through June. Anyway, good to finally get this stuff in hand, even if I had to subject the Master to quite a bit of violence to get his waist swivel unglued. At least I didn't injure myself when I broke out the razor and the hammer...

And soon, if all goes according to plan, we're off to see Let Me In, the American remake of the awesome Swedish film Let the Right One In. And then I will return home to have a Bloody Mary and post something to Scary-Crayon. 🙂

All for now, then!