Jeff is 33

You wanted me to broadcast your age to the internet, right honey?

Jeff rang in the new year with some friends and a cake.  He'll do more ringing in Hawaii, so all in all, I'd say he's got it pretty good.

Growing up, my mom would make our cakes in the theme of our choosing.  I had about 8 piggy themed cakes, because that was my favorite animal.  We weren't allowed to be in the kitchen while she was frosting them, and while the cakes cooled she'd cover them with a dish cloth.  Even though we knew what she was doing we pretended not to.  Jeff totally botched this surprise and saw me cooking up the whole thing, made comments, asked questions, but now he knows that is verboten for next year.

I love making cakes, but unless they are really dense I don't love eating them.  The fun in a cake lies in making it pretty, because brownies and cookies are pretty much one style and their earthy tones aren't that thrilling.  I got the recipe for a lemon poppy seed cake on Pinterest and copied my friend Lauren Phelps' idea of fading shades of blue in each layer of cake.  I had a blast doing it and it turned out pretty well (toot toot my own horn!).

33 things about Jeff:

1. He is my husband, which means out of all the guys I dated or could have dated or knew, he's the one that I chose to hunker down with, and who chose me, and I'm so glad I (we) did.
2. He will always, always return the shopping cart to its little rack in the parking lot.
3. When we go to Costco and take a sample, he always says as he walks away, "Oh that's really good!  We should get some!" just so that the person working the sample table doesn't feel like they did a bad job.
4. He has a sweet tooth that could beat up your sweet tooth.
5. He's such a lawyer.  In any situation, conversation, he's always mindful of the opposing opinion, argument, what's provable, what's faulty, etc.
6. When we're watching a movie and something is totally unrealistic, he reminds us all, "Willing suspension of disbelief."
7. He is the most loyal son, brother, nephew, uncle, cousin, grandson, etc.  He is so protective and respectful.  It's so admirable.
8. He love olives.  (Dry heave)
9. Most of the time he hops out of bed to get Jude first in the morning.
10. He minored in French.
11. He majored in Political Science.
12. He's still never told me what he scored on the LSAT, and even though he'll deny this I know it's because he's bashful about how well he did.
13. He LOVED Law School and has a special place in his heart for those 3 years.
14. He has great friends and one thing I've loved about being his wifey is that they are now MY friends, too!  I love them!
15. Jude can do no wrong in his eyes.
16. He's very risk averse and is very gung ho about getting things set for retirement (even though that's like 2 million years away!).
17. He tells me all the time that my blog is his favorite thing to read :).
18. He always gives my mom a hug when he sees her.
19. He has written about 3,000 off-the-cuff songs for Jude and me that regularly get stuck in my head.
20. He loves Joni Mitchell and other actual musicians but in his car listens to a lot of rap and hip-hop (which has to be kicked to the curb when Jude is along for the ride).
21. If he hadn't been a lawyer he would have been an architect or a real estate developer.
22. He's his own worst critic.
23. He wishes he had more time to read and surf.
24. He has very specific opinions about the garden.
25. He hates dark chocolate, prefers milk, and I'm the reverse, so we're good for each other like that.
26. He kept saying, "You're so brave!" when I was in labor, which made me laugh later, I thought, "What was brave about my screaming at the absolute top of my lungs??"
27. He doesn't like bananas.
28. He picks up other languages like it ain't no thang.
29. His favorite movie is Big Fish.
30. He hates period pieces.
31. He's very private (until I spilled all this info onto my blog).
32. He needs new running shoes.
33. He is FUNNY, and I think I get to benefit from that most of all.

Happy Birthday, Jeff.  Many happy returns!