The birthday cake at work thing is one of my all-time "issues". Not only do we havemonthly birthday cake, we are all supposed to chip in money for this every month; one of the (VERY heavy) ladies in the office comes around and bullies us for cash if we fall behind in "contributions". I refuse to donate. Now, if they're doing something special otherwise (one of our docs was very sick once in ICU and they took up $$$ to get together a meal for his wife and daughter) I'm ready to pitch in.

But everybody knows I don't eat the cake. When I do decide to eat cake, it's the really good stuff that I order from a custom bakery in town and it's got to be a very special occasion.