Birthday Celebrations and More!

First, I want to say "Happy Birthday" to my husband. Today was his special day and I had fun planning it. Although, he kind of almost ruined the surprise. He was "supposed" to go to bed early last night so I could finish preparations and he was "supposed" to be off today. My original plan was to set everything up last night and then let him wake up to it... But, no... He decided that he needed to work today, and since he didn't have to go in at the butt-crack of dawn, that he could stay up with me and get up with me... crap...

Plan B meant frantically finishing the preparations this morning and (after making sure he was STAYING at work) setting up the surprise on my lunch break... I threw in a sandwich delivery just to make sure he stayed at the airport...

So, what was the surprise? I set up a little scavenger hunt for my honey. We are in that stage where you don't really know what to get for the other person because (1) he already has pretty much everything he needs and (2) you don't have a whole lot of cash to drop on a present that you know he'd really love.

So, starting out with his birthday card - I found a pretty cute one of a dog (he's just crazy about canines) that was blank inside. I wrote a simple little saying and signed it from Me, Noni, & Lijha (had to include the dogs). Then I added a little note to the bottom of the card - "If you think this is all you get today, turn the card over"

On the back of the card was clue #1 - A quote from one of our favorite books by one of our favorite authors (if we are being completely honest here, we haven't read the book in QUITE some time, but I remember when it was the center of our little world... like back in year 1 of being married). He had to use a little help from Google to "get" what it meant, but it led him to the book where he found a gift card to the local coffee shop.

By Herminio Ulibarri

Attached to the gift card was clue #2 - "A gift given with love! We call it beautiful, others call it creepy... The product of a troubled heart, the nun appeared and restored peace." - I know, not really poetry, but very well meaning. This was to point him to a beloved painting that his grandfather created. It is very special to us because it was given to us the last time we saw him. The story he told of the painting is one of loss and pain and grief. The painting was a kind of therapy (and as a closet artist myself, I completely understood its personal meaning and why he was giving it to us). He painted it after the death of one of his sons. "The nun appeared..." because he hadn't planned on painting her. Just, one day, he was painting and there she was... She helped him overcome his grief. It was not long after we received this painting that Aaron's grandfather died after a battle with lung cancer. We miss him dearly...

Anyway, I hid his gift around this painting. I have to admit that we have two - the original oil painting and a similar watercolor painting that hangs in our dining room. My original idea was to hide this gift behind the painting but it hangs too high in the living room to do so. Then I tried to put it behind the one in the dining room, but it wouldn't stay. So, I hid it behind the TV underneath the original painting. The gift was the blue-ray edition of "The Last Starfighter"... Yeah, I went there... Bring on the cheesy '80's acting and special effects!

On the case for the movie was his 3rd clue - "Greetings Starfighter! You have been chosen by the Star League to defend the frontier against Noni and the Lijha armada. Be sure to watch out for the bouncing beast! You'll find you next clue where you'll leash expect it." (Did you see what I did there? I just couldn't resist...)

This, of course, led him to our front door where we have the dogs' leashes hanging on hooks. The bouncing dog reference is for Lijha... She likes to bounce and jump at her harness and leash when she thinks she is going somewhere... Hanging on one of the hooks was a gift bag with little toy cardboard gliders... The kind you would give out at a 6-year-old's party... I always get him something fun like this for birthday or Christmas.

What better clue to put on a 6-year-old's toy but a reference to the liquor cabinet! No, he didn't get a bottle of scotch (this time) but I did hide his special dark chocolate there... He got 3 kinds - regular (70% dark), orange, and chili...He tried the chili one first. He says it has a slow burn... The final clue on the chocolate bars led him to our coffee table that is shaped like a large trunk. We keep all kinds of things in there, but mostly extra blankets for when company comes. To make it easier to clean the living room, I added the castors that came with it to the bottom... Aaron hates it on wheels because it pushes away anytime he tries to prop his feet up on it, but to his credit, he hasn't tried to remove the wheels (yet)...

I hid his last gift under the table, primarily because he would know something was up if I tried to put it inside the table (as was my original plan)... The only time the table is clear enough to remove the hidden top is when we have it cleaned off for company... The rest of the time it looks like a bomb went off and scattered random mail, magazines, cups, and dog toys on it... Had I disturbed any of this, he would have KNOWN something was up...

His last gift was a set of random coupon cards... Mostly I wrote things on them that I thought he would appreciate... Like "ONE FREE Movie Night" or "FREE PASS from taking out the garbage" or - his personal favorite - "ONE FREE Homework-Free Night"... I required that he give me at least a day's notice when he wants to invoke one of these cards simply because I may need to shuffle things around to make sure I can accommodate the due dates of various assignments...

Birthday dinner was at our new favorite restaurant downtown - he got sushi and I got Chicken Udon soup. I shared my pot-stickers with him (it was his birthday, after all). We just got back home and need to work in the morning (him at o'crap-thirty), so we won't be doing anything else too crazy... Like breaking out the absinthe (last year's birthday present)...

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!!!

Aaron has been working on a video of him flying at work (well, of him flying - I don't think he would call it "work")... It was taken on a VERY nice (VERY RARE) day here not too long ago. It was a beautiful flight and I hope you enjoy it :) PS - Look for the heart-shaped lake!