Joel's Birthday

For Joel's birthday last weekend we decided to lay low.  He requested that I make my famous meatball subs (famous to him) and that we just hang out and watch movies.  So on his birthday, I got up with him and had a special breakfast treat, a donut and a bacon croissant and gave him a special snack for later at work (a pretzel bread from our favorite bakery).  We went out with a bunch of people from Joel's office for his birthday lunch and Joel treated everyone to pizza.  It is tradition to treat people on your birthday which I think it really funny.  I baked a cake and took it in for everyone to enjoy at the office just before everyone left for the day.  All of the Chinese were really excited to have a traditional American birthday cake and took thousands of photos of the cake and me cutting the cake and Joel and I with the cake , phew.  The only bad part about the day was me trying to get the cake to the office.  We live right on the river and Joel's office is directly across from us also on the river so we just take the ferry back and forth.  So at 4:15 I left the house carrying a huge cake plate, a large knife (which I hid in my purse) and plates and headed toward the ferry.  The cake plate was really heavy and it was hot outside.  When I got to the ferry it was closed because the river had risen too high and flooded the dock.  Great.  Did I mention it was really hot and the icing on the cake was starting to melt off?  So I waited to see if the ferry would start again, all the while drawing a crowd of curious chinese who were wondering why I was carrying a cake.  So needless to say I gave up and grabbed a cab (which takes twice as long) and of course the ferry started going again.  Ahh, the joys of living in the big city and not having a car to throw things in and to get around.  So, after the fun at the office Joel and I headed back where he got to open all his presents.  I got him a badminton set, a movie watching date kit and a few other fun things.  We had our meatball subs and just watched movies and hung out all night.  The next day we went to the park with some friends and spent the whole day playing badminton and hanging out in the sun.  It was a beautiful day in Shanghai!  Over all I think Joel had a pretty good b-day.