yesterday was yoshi's birthday. i bought him a wallet and a cake before i went to work. after i finished and picked up hiro i called home. yoshi thanked me for the wallet. i said, 'how did you know it was for you?'

'what? oops.'

'it's just that i didn't put your name on it. how did you know it was for you?'

'um...well, i already put everything from my wallet into the new one. sorry.'

'no, no, that's ok,' i said. 'it is for you. it's just that i didn't put your name on it. did i leave it in the genkan?'

'yes.'

'oops, sorry about that...'

(don't read anger in my tone. it's just that i meant to put his name on it and leave it on the table. i'm such an airhead!!)

yoshi asked if i wanted to go out for dinner even though i would get home at 8:30. we went to a (rather expensive) izakaya and yoshi ordered a lot of food, even though he said, 'let's not order much because it's late.' he ended up eating most of it as i started feeling ill and hiro was getting cranky. and clingy. he would scream when i went to the toilet.

the second time i went, i took hiro with me. on the wall was an announcement that the restaurant would do birthday celebrations with a free dessert. when i went out, i told the nearest waiter that it was my husband's birthday. they asked me his name and which dessert we would like. i ordered the burnt pudding. yoshi was still working on all that food, plus an order of fried tofu came out (i was really not feeling well at that point, sore stomach) and when yoshi finished up he wanted to go. i asked him to let me rest for a few minutes. plush, hiro was trying to walk all over. yoshi had drunk one beer and one cup of shochu and was drunk, so he didn't really worry much over me wanting to stay. finally, the lights dimmed and the happy birthday song started to play. the staff started singing happy birthday and brought out the pudding with some pink ice cream with a candle in it. then they took two pictures--one for us and one for a bulletin board in front--and then yoshi blew out his candle. the pudding was delicious, but the ice cream was ume. hmmm. well, yoshi liked it. (or maybe he was just drunk!)