Ain't it great?

Yesterday was my birthday (yea, me! ;-)) This year, Clare, sweet thing that she is, decided to make my cake. It ended up that Tom helped her make it while I went out with friends the night before. (As it was his first cake, too, he called me several times to ask this and that!) They cooked it fine, but didn't allow it to cool enough and didn't shave off the top of the bottom layer. How would they have known to do all that?? Anyway, this is the final product:

Believe me, it tastes much better than it looks!! I sure do LOVE chocolate!! We had a good laugh about it. Clare has declared herself the "Ace of Cakes!" She's going to help make Daniel's cake for his party this weekend (she's going to get a few lessons from Mom. :))

To celebrate my birthday, Tom and I ran a half marathon. It was a bit hilly, but still pretty good (Tom swore we were running uphill both ways!) We ran it in 2 hours, 14 minutes, and 30 seconds. Our pace was better than when we ran the marathon - 10 minute, 13 second miles. Yippee! The weather wasn't the greatest. It misted for the first 6.5 miles and poured the last 6.5 miles. We even had a little lightening along the way! I think that must be the reason our pace was faster! We were totally drenched by the finish. There was pizza waiting for us at the end, which made Tom VERY happy. I am so grateful for the fact that I can run such long distances, especially with Tom.