Zachy's Birthday!

Mr. Zachary Westhoven turned 20 on Wednesday and even on a Londonite budget, I was on a mission to shower him with smile-inducing goodness. This meant channeling every ounce of my iffy domestic skills to sew up another rice-filled heating pad, this one made from very manly black cotton. This also meant busting out my inner creative fiend (and my scissors) to throw together a homemade London-themed birthday card from binder paper and travel guide brochures. Rainey had a brilliant plan to bake a cake, but after considering our combined baking aptitude and the unruly temperament of our oven, we played it safe and bought one at the grocery store that we could decorate. Voila!

Me with the card:

The smile-inducing goodies (notice the wrapping paper):

Rain cloud with Zachy's cake (which was DIVINE! Yeah Waitrose.)

Steph taught us the tradition of having the birthday person (Zach) cut into the cake and the person with the next birthday (me) pull the knife out, both making a wish on their respective action. I think I’m up to about 5 (consistent) wishes now including two fountains, the cake, and at least two legit 11:11’s.

Me awkwardly wishing:

Laughing about the awkward wishing:

The next night we (somewhat accidentally) continued our “Taco Thursday” tradition by heading out to “Café Pacifico” in Covent Garden. The 7 of us, bubbling with excitement, received a harsh reality check after a quick chat with the host. A 2 hour wait? Ouch. But we were determined to get Zach a margarita at a legit Mexican restaurant and so the wait began.

You can do a lot in 2 hours. You can watch “Pirates of the Caribbean” or a hockey game. You can write a paper or tour the National Gallery. You could even fly from London to Switzerland. What did we do? We (and by “we” I mean the girls, because the boys were much too smart for this) walked into H&M (a popular clothing store that started in Sweden and has since taken over the world—including a spot in the MALL* by my school) By the time I realized the boys were off doing something sure to be much more thrilling (which now, from reading Andrew’s blog, has been confirmed), I had resigned to my fate of window shopping and trying on silly hats.

*Apparently I pronounce this word wrong/differently. And it has been a frequent topic of conversation.

Me and Rainey striking a pose:

Following the H&M excursion, we found the boys back at the restaurant and packed in like sardines at the bar and ordered drinks and chips & salsa. Then we sat and stared down the tables full of people eating, watching like hawks for signs of bills being signed or tables being cleared. At last (2 hours later, as the host had predicted), we arrived at our table to enjoy what ended up being some pretty delicious Mexican entrees. Even better than the meal, however, was the amount of silliness at the table. Every word out of Zach’s mouth was quotable, every expression on Rainey’s face was photographable, and the excitement for our Switzerland trip had Andrew and I yodeling a new acronym that no one understood.

“The man who can dominate a London dinner-table can dominate the world.”-Oscar Wilde (BTW)

Dave and Steph:

Me and Andrew (AAITA!) :

Zach and Rainey (which is grainy because it was extracted from a video clip)

The whole gang (minus Dave, our self-sacrificing cameraman)

And so ends another night in London.

London London London.

NBD.