Happy Birthday to Me

We are just rounding out the end February 17th in Japan - and its just beginning in Oregon. I guess technically I was celebrating early. I woke up in a pretty bad mood, but things improved quickly with some hot-off-the-griddle French toast from Russell.

I caught all my transportation easily (no running today!) and got to have a very nice long discussion with my boss about textbooks in the morning. I had given up on the possibility of a textbook meeting because none of my colleagues managed to make it to work on time today. I've been anxious to get started on that project. Textbook talk was followed by two mini-classes for some students who returned from abroad and need to make up some extra credits. They were full of questions and while the whole class was a tangent to what I had planned it was really fun and energizing.

Russell met me downtown and we decided to go to yakiniku for dinner. We headed back to the place near our house (our favorite) but unfortunately it is randomly closed on Wednesdays. No yakiniku for us. Instead of getting back on the train to head downtown again - or settle for average food in our neighborhood - we decided to postpone the yakiniku until tomorrow night and opted instead for bento from the convenience store.

After dinner Russell gave me a pretty necklace for my birthday and a cake! The cake was awesome. Its spongy yellow cake on top with pudding in the middle. There are also chunks of strawberry and apple in the pudding and a crispy chocolate cookie bottom. Definitely unusual, but very tasty. I like it better than the traditional Japanese birthday cake. Russell also got me some imo-custard treats. These are custard in the center with a sweetened sweet-potato outer layer. Very Japanese and very tasty.

Very tasty evening followed by TV and snuggles. Nice.