A birthday to remember August 9th, 2009
I’ve seen a lot in my life, and thought I had reached a point where nothing short of global catastrophe could surprise me.
Then I came home from watching G.I. Joe yesterday (more on that later) to the first actual surprise party I’ve ever had in my life. My mother, Cory, Ben Moore, nearly everyone from my office that I like, all of our local friends, and my kids were all waiting in my living room. Streamers, balloons, cake, snacks, presents, the yelling of “SURPRISE” in unison, the works.
I was, for the first time in a long time, completely stunned and speechless. It was amazing. Virtually everyone I care about was wedged into my house. There was a keg in the backyard.
I got presents! A propane grill was the Mjolnir smash. Beatrice got a top case. I also got a rechargeable drill, an Iron Man book, a case of Hoegaarden, and 12 months of Xbox Live Gold. Several people tossed Best Buy giftcards my way as well – and today I piled them together and got a soundbar speaker system for downstairs with an iPod dock in it. It will see a lot of use during video games, movie nights, Rock Band parties, and cleaning the house (especially since Cox has taken away the bluegrass music channel.)
Marissa managed to coordinate and pull this off over the past MONTHS without me even having a hint of what was going on. I will post a picture in this article of my complete kernel-panic shutdown face a bit later. I swear, there was even a tear.
Thanks to, in no particular order: Ben Moore, Cory, Ben Patterson, Kristin and PJ, Angie, Tom and Amanda, Dave and Felicia, Lee, Cydney, Andrew, Dozer, Noah, Alex, Chris, Casey, Lissa, Mom, Jake, Veronica, Milo, and of course Marissa.
I have the most amazing wife ever – she continues to find new ways to blow me away on a daily basis. I just hope her birthday next weekend is palatable, since there’s no way I can compete with this.
