It's the Big 2-0.

Today when my students asked (repeatedly) what the date was and I (repeatedly) said, Today is the twenty-first, I also said, And it's my brother's birthday.

My students asked me what I got my brother. They wanted to see how awesome of a sister I am. I told them I gave him a crisp $10 bill and some expensive beer. I thought the beer was necessary because lately my brother has been drinking beer he describes as "Not that bad for $12 a case." I felt I could improve his quality of life by giving him good beer, beer that was imported, beer that was Irish.

"You are a very, very good sister," my students said.

Yes, yes, I am. I even made a cake. The worst cake of all time. It was a cake for an eleven year old girl. An eleven year old girl who has a really bad cake-baking sister.



I had many things working against me:

1. My brother requested a cake mix. He wanted Rainbow Chip with fake Rainbow Chip frosting. I don't work well with fake frosting. I think fake frosting is grouchy and stupid and it doesn't spread nice, no matter how much you fluff it.

2. I couldn't find my father's round cake pans and was forced to make an ugly square.

3. The frosting pulled a section of the cake apart, and I tried to repair the broken parts with more frosting and cinnamon candies made to look like flowers. Flowers for a twenty year old boy. I'm a genius.

Anyway, I tried. I really, really did. But I did give the beer, not to mention the $10 he can blow at the Canadian Ballet, so that's got to count for something.