Good Madness

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So anyway, I’m a big fan of birthdays. I happen to think it’s important to celebrate the birthdays of the people you love because daggumit the world just wouldn’t be the same without them! Michael’s birthday was earlier this month and we jumped at the chance to celebrate with our first date night, sans Bria. It was hard but it was a breath of fresh air to go out and enjoy ourselves; just the two of us (que: Just the Two of Us by Bill Withers).

That morning Bria and I woke up early (aka, she woke up early and I followed suite) and went to the grocery store for a last minute cake-ingredient run. The trip wasn’t too bad considering she hates the car and when I got home she napped long enough for me to bake The Man’s cake! The recipe is called Better Than Sex Cake and I may have to agree…

Here she is, ladies and gentlemen:

Under that fluffy white layer of whipped cream (and Heath bar bits on top) is a caramel sauce soaked devil’s food cake (two layers please), and extra toffee bar bits throughout. Yes ma’am… its daggum good.

Here’s the recipe:

Better Than Sex Cake

Ingredients

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package devil's food cake mix
• 1/2 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 6 ounces caramel ice cream topping
• 3 (1.4 ounce) bars chocolate covered toffee, chopped
• 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

Directions

1. Bake cake according to package directions for a 9x13 inch pan; cool on wire rack for 5 minutes. Make slits across the top of the cake, making sure not to go through to the bottom.
2. In a saucepan over low heat, combine sweetened condensed milk and caramel topping, stirring until smooth and blended. Slowly pour the warm topping mixture over the top of the warm cake, letting it sink into the slits; then sprinkle the crushed chocolate toffee bars liberally across the entire cake while still warm. (Hint: I crush my candy bars into small chunks as opposed to crumbs - I like to have pieces I can chew on!)
3. Let cake cool completely, then top with whipped topping. Decorate the top of the cake with some more chocolate toffee bar chunks and swirls of caramel topping. Refrigerate and serve right from the pan!

As far as presents go my big present to him came later that day when I purchased his tattoo, but we’ll get to that soon enough. I also bought him an iPod Nano with workout earbuds; now he can blast his metal when we’re working out (and while I tune into Lady Gaga/Black Eyed Peas/Rob Zombie… haha, weird combo I know). But the day before we made a trip to Michael’s dad’s house where Mike received his birthday presents early; a PS3 and a big bottle of vodka! So for the rest of the day, until it was time for our date, he played on his PS3. He also received some great gift cards!

Grandma (my mom) came over around 5:30pm to babysit Brianna. We said our goodbyes (and I gave my mom the 3 page notes I had written regarding Brianna’s bedtime routine and some tips on how to calm her down incase she had a full blown meltdown) and off we went.

First stop was Kooky Canuk on 2^nd St., downtown Memphis. This restaurant has been featured on Man vs. Food, the tv show where the host, Adam Richman, travels the US and attempts to beat crazy food challenges. Kooky Canuk offers a HUGE burger; those that can eat the burger in under 60 minutes gets bragging rights, their faces in the Hall of Fame, and a paid-for burger. I never did see the episode where Adam Richman attempted to eat the huge burger but check this out:

Kookamonga burger challenge

-kookamonga burger is 4lbs of ground chuck, 2lbs of hamburger bun, 1.5lbs of lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onions, and cheese totaling 7.5lbs!

-3,198 people have attempted to eat the kookamonga burger but only 8 have achieved Hall of Fame status.

-The kookamonga’s total amount of calories = 12,387 (266.8g of fat)!

-To burn off those calories you’d have to: go on a cross country hike for 30 hours, do low impact aerobics for 28 hours, sleep for 200 hours (ha!), rollerblade for 13 hours, or push mow your lawn for 30 hours!

Anyway, we did not attempt to eat the huge ass burger. We ate rather normal meals pretty and ate them rather quickly, then bolted for the door; we had a tattoo appointment to make and were ready to get away from the screaming kids in the restaurant (we love our screaming Bria but were looking to get AWAY from the children that night, not find more).

We arrived at Ramesses’ Shadow Tattoo Parlour right on time. I wish I would have taken more pictures of the place but let me just say that I LOVE this tattoo parlour. It’s small, its artistic, its appointment only and it  projects FANTASTIC work. Shannon, at Ramesses, first started working on my back piece YEARS and years ago. Since I first started going to Ramesses I have been a total of 4 times, and until my back is finished I will always go there. These guys (two brothers: Shannon and Kevin Johnson) are so good that they are booked a YEAR (yes, a YEAR) in advance. So we had these appointments scheduled and were so happy to spend our date night there. First of all, there were no children. The quiet time without Brianna was great; I missed her but I can’t say that going two months without a date night is ideal. Anyway, the guys were cool, and we left with some awesome work.

My back didn’t need much, just some fill in color.

The REAL TREAT was Michael’s birthday present: the reworking of his former tattoo:

Into this…

See the original snake inside the bottom part of the new one?

The former snake was a copper head that Michael got when he was a teenager. It had faded and blended together to the point of needing real touch up work. But instead of just touching it up he decided he wanted to cover it up with a new snake. Kevin managed to do that plus take it up a few notches and makes it bad ass. Now the snake is a temple viper. A picture of the real thing:

We’ll be going back in about a year to get the color added (and I will be adding some text and a broken rope to my back piece).

During our time at that tattoo parlour I was texting my mom, worried about what kind of hell Brianna was putting her thru (we have been trying to get her on the bottle without much luck. And without me there I was worried she wouldn’t eat, thus wouldn’t calm down, thus wouldn’t go to sleep, thus stressing my poor mother out). But to my ENORMOUS relief my mom informed me that not only was she now sleeping in her crib but she had taken the bottle! Not only did she take the bottle but she took 5 oz. from the thing! I was so excited and happy for my little girl. When we finally got home I thanked my sleepy mom profusely.

Unfortunately little B must have had too much formula too soon. In the middle of the night she woke up (like normal) and when I went to her I found her in a huge puddle of her own vomit (not normal). She continued to vomit for the rest of the night and didn’t really stop until 8am-ish. I stayed up most of the night with her, changing her clothes and eventually giving her a bath. I didn’t feed her any more that night for fear that she’d spit everything right back up.

So the next day both Bria and I were sleepy people, but the date night/birthday seemed to have been a success! We can’t wait for our next date night. :) We’re thinking maybe a movie and another restaurant (next time we’ll definitely find a place that’s less likely to have kids running amuk)? Any suggestions are welcomed!

To end this birthday post, I leave you with a picture of my beautiful two month old. I wish you could see her big smiles she gives us every morning, and now every day. She is becoming much more social and so far has a great personality and demeanor. She only gets fussy when she's sleepy/hungry but a well rested baby makes for a happy baby, and that definitely is the truth in our situation. We love you Bria Bug!!