Head to Head: Birthday Edition

What's the coolest gift you've ever received?

Cass: By far, the vow art Philip made for Christmas this year. A homemade gift that will be treasured in our home forever.

Philip: When I was in my teens I got the Adobe Creative Suite of design programs, which set me on a pretty solid path of design and creativity. I used to design logos and jerseys, and now I still use it when planning out plans for our home, creating our blog banner (don't worry, I'll try and produce a June one this time), I even designed our wedding stationary. 

What's your favourite birthday dessert?

Cass: Ice cream cake! Hands down. The most refreshing and delicious cake, can be made in a bajillion flavours, and even shapes! Mm I want a heartshaped strawberry ice cream cake right now. Never had it but picturing it is beautiful in my head. 

Philip: Cheesecake is my answer, no matter what the occasion. 

Invent a party game and explain how it works.

Cass: For our Christmas gift exchange one year we had to make homemade gifts. I crafted a family trivia game, which is a great idea for anyone on a budget who needs a neat birthday/Christmas/other event gift. Think up some categories, questions, and print them out on cards to play at your next family gathering.

Philip: Pin the insulation in our ceiling. It's like pin the tail on the donkey, except you take down old insulation and reinsulate our attic while blindfolded. Great for all ages.

Philip's Official 2013 Birthday List

What? A Friday Phil post? Yes, it's been a while, and this post is even late in the day.
But there's only one way to get back on a horse, and that's to just go ahead and do it! (Or so I'm told, I've never done it.)
The rest of my sports room post will get published shortly. Suffice it to say, it was a bigger undertaking than I anticipated; each image took me approximately two hours to produce, and that kind of time is hard to set aside. So in the interim, you get the following:

This weekend is not only a long weekend in Canada, it's my birthday weekend. Yes, Queen Victoria and I are sharing a day for our respective festivities. A particular tradition of mine--as it is for many people--is making a birthday list.
Now, people say I go overboard with it. I just think I do a good job of organizing it; true, in the past, I've supplied prices, places to buy the items, even themed title pages. This year, I scaled it back a little, which meant only listing the product and a link to where you can buy it online (more for the benefit of my own family than you readers, but hey, don't let that stop you!). So without further ado...

Philip’s Birthday List

Movies/TV

A number of boxed sets top this list, led by the award-winning sports documentary series 30 for 30, which I missed when it aired originally but am really interested in catching up on.

1. ESPN 30 for 30 Collector's Set (Blu-Ray Boxed Set)
2. Friday Night Lights - Season 3 (DVD Boxed Set)
3. The Pacific (Blu-Ray Boxed Set)
4. Mad Men: Season 3 (Blu-Ray Boxed Set)
5. Any Pixar Movie (Blu-Ray)

Oh yeah, and Pixar movies. Save for Cars 2, you just can't go wrong.

Books

I'm all over the map here. A list featuring two spy novels, a young adult series' boxed set, and a literary classic is topped by (what Bill Simmons insists is) the greatest sports book of all time. 

1. David Halberstam: The Breaks of the Game (Hardcover)
2. John Le Carre: The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (Hardcover)
3. Rick Riordan: Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series (Hardcover Boxed Set)
4. Fredrick Forsyth: The Day of the Jackal (Hardcover)
5. Gustave Flaubert: Madame Bovary (Hardcover)

A young writer I know recommended these to me, because I liked Harry Potter. Sold.

Games

I don't get to play video games nearly as much as I'd like anymore, and I play more board games now than I ever have. It's the price you pay for being married, my single male friends, and believe me, it's quite alright with me. That said, I've played every iteration of the Civilization series since #2, and I don't intend on ending that streak quite yet.

1. Sid Meier’s Civilization V: Gold Edition (PC-DVD)
2. Ticket to Ride: USA 1910 Expansion (Board Game)
3. EA Sports 08 Collection (PC-DVD)
4. Days of Wonder: Mystery Express (Board Game)
5. The Logo Board Game (Board Game)

Nothing wrong with setting the difficulty to "Settler" and beating up on some Carthaginians.

Music

The way I enjoy music has changed since I discovered Noisetrade. That said, my love affair with the physical CD hasn't quite ended yet, particularly with the variety of new music I discover through RELEVANT Magazine and their fantastic podcast.

1. Needtobreathe: The Heat (Audio CD)
2. Broken Bells: self-titled (Audio CD)
3. The Lumineers: self-titled (Audio CD)
4. Foster the People: Torches (Audio CD)
5. The Black Keys: Brothers (Audio CD)

This is an item on my birthday list.

Tools

This is the first birthday list to feature a category this practical, after my Christmas list broke the practicality barrier for lists overall. I've been lucky enough to have gotten a lot of the basic tools from my grandpa's old tool kit, as well as some pleasant surprises at Christmas time and throughout the past two years. And now it's time to venture into the world of scary, destructive tools.

1. Circular Saw
2. Reciprocating Saw
3. Random Orbital Sander
4. Tiling Wet Saw
5. Tool Chest

It's time, fear of saws, thy reckoning has come.

Clothes

1. Anaheim Mighty Ducks 1997 Alternate Away Jersey
2. Winnipeg Jets “Hawerchuk #10” 1979 Vintage Away Jersey
3. Dress Shoes
4. Golf Shirts
5. Dress Shirts

There are a lot of unique jerseys in NHL history.
There are a lot of nice jerseys in NHL history.
This is one of the few that fits in both.

Household Gadgets

This is perhaps the most fun category for readers of this blog. There's a few electronics-related products, plus a couple kitchen gadgets. If you read our Would You Tues? post from this week, #3 should come as no surprise.

1. Laptop Chill Mat (for up to 17” laptops)
2. iPhone 4 Car Mount
3. Fred & Friends Gin & Titonic Ice Cube Tray
4. Breadmaker
5. iPad

"I'm cooling, Jack, I'm cooling!"

Projects

In case our parents are reading this, this is the category where we watch while you work! (Just kidding. We'll be busy documenting your work for this here blog.)

1. New Garage Doors/Openers
2. Beam for our Living Room/Kitchen Wall
3. Bathroom Flooring
4. Paint
5. New Interior Doors

As awesome as it would be to have a can of paint in all these colours, where would I store it all? A gift card would have to do.

That's all for this year's list.

Are you a May birthday? If so, what are you hoping shows up under the Birthday Tree? If not, what are you getting me? ;)

What We're Looking Forward To

Last week, we asked what you're looking forward to most in 2013. Obviously there's probably some broader answers out there than the poll allowed, so feel free to add those in the comments. 

Here's a glance at what we're looking forward to most over the next 51 weeks or so. 

1. Enjoying a full summer with a backyard.

Last year we moved into the house at the end of August and mostly only had time for yard maintenance and some clean-up at the end of the outdoor season. We're looking forward to getting settled in our back yard, hosting lots of BBQs and bon fires, and starting up some gardening (that might be hopeful...I'm a plant killer). Philip also told me to share that he is looking forward to not wearing long underwear every day and to eating cookie dough ice cream. 

2. Investors Group Field

Our local Canadian Football League team is getting a new home and, by the looks of it, it's going to be night and day from the old one. Watching the Blue Bombers with this view, not having to walk around an endlessly-spiralling ramp  to get to our seats, not having to pee in a trough, and a lot more leg room are just a few of the amenities we're eagerly anticipating come late June (this one came from Philip - don't worry, in Canada women do not pee in a trough). 

Got to admit, I'm most looking forward to no more ramp to walk up, and no more squishy bench. 

3. Celebrating 2 years of marriage.

With marriages falling apart so easily these days, I feel so blessed to have a husband that I love and am looking forward to celebrating our 2 year anniversary. It isn't long, but marriage is hard and so every anniversary is a great time to remind ourselves of that. Last August we went to Chicago to celebrate, so we'll see what we end up doing this year!

4. Heading to Ontario. 

I was born in Ontario, and still have a large number of loved ones there, so we're hoping to get out to Ontario at some point this year for a visit. The planning has just started on that one so we'll have to see how it pans out! 

5. Getting settled in our home.

This continues off of number 2, with the hope that we can start to live more permanently here and be content with the work we've finished. It's not likely that we'll get to finish our kitchen any time soon so we'd like to just get settled in and used to what we have here already. Then we can slowly work away at things as we have the financial means. 

6. The unexpected.

In just 3 short years we've met, dated, become engaged, married, renovated a condo, moved to our house, and a lot of other exciting milestones and events too! We're looking forward to whatever 2013 has in store, because I'm sure that some of it we haven't planned for. 

7. Turning 24 & 28.

Although my husband looks ridiculously youthful, he's on the older end of this one. I'm looking forward to turning 24 and celebrating his 28th birthday. Especially with our new DIY skills, I've already started putting some thought into what kind of project I might be able to whip up for this May. 

8. Having only one wedding to attend (crossing our fingers - sorry to our friends who get a less than pleasant response if they get engaged soon)

Last year we had 5 weddings, the year before 10, and the year before 6. 2013 has only 1, and we could not be happier. We've loved celebrating love for the past few years, but I'm looking forward to just enjoying one wedding this year and celebrating wholeheartedly with really good friends. 

9. Having some free time?

According to our to-do list, we actually have nothing scheduled this Fall, so if things stay that way we'll have some time off. Also hoping for a vacation or two, so that will be wonderful. 

10. Learning more new things. 

It's been very exciting learning how to do some home improvement projects, learning to be better at being married and domesticated. I'm excited to see the things we learn this year, as the past couple of years should have earned us a University degree in new experiences.