January 20, 2007 - Happy 60th

Yesterday was a special day. My husband, Bob, turned 60 years old. I had a SURPRISE birthday party for him. I held it in a room by the golf dome at Skyline Bowling Lanes. It was the perfect room to hold the party. There was lots of room for mingling, tables for sitting and visiting, a sofa, and more than one TV for watching the UMD and Minnesota Wild Hockey games for the dire hard hockey fans. I had a cake that had a golf theme on it for the 60 year old. He was really surprised! It’s not easy planning a surprise party, it involves a lot of sneaking around and a lot of organization. I’m such a talker, it was hard for me not to let anything slip! But, I managed to pull it off. We had a good time. He got some really funny cards. I asked for no gifts, but if the guests wanted, they could bring new socks or underwear to be donated to the CHUM Drop in Center (they are always in need of them). I took a bag of socks (no one brought underwear), some canned goods and $20 to church this morning for the CHUM donation box. The invitation had this cute photo of Bob on it, when he was umm...2 or 3 years old. (thankfully, he didn't get cross at me for sharing the photo)

Our daughter came up from Hudson yesterday, supposedly to “get away for the weekend” and to wish her Dad a happy 60th. We made plans to go out to a restaurant to eat at 8 pm, and Scott, who couldn’t join us for dinner, invited us to stop at the bowling alley lounge for a birthday drink at 7. When we got there, we sprung the surprise on him. The only family member that didn’t know about it was our granddaughter, Madelyn. She got mad when she found out we didn’t tell her, but we knew she would never be able to keep it a secret! Soon after Dawn came to town we told her Dad that us girls had to go to the mall to look at something there, nothing suspicious, because Dawn often shops when she comes to town. That’s when she and I went into action, setting up and decorating the room. Bob was really surprised. He didn’t have a clue; we did a really good job. He enjoyed
his party, all of us enjoyed his party. We had about 35. If everyone came that I invited it could have been a lot more, but the best part was that the ones that did come were ones we are close to, and there were at least 6 that we haven’t seen in more than a year or more, friends that we used to be close to, it was so good to connect with them again!

I ordered our favorite Utz’s Grandma’s Hand Cooked potato chips from the factory in Hanover, PA, and our favorite Martin’s B B Q Ripple chips from Hanover, PA. Both came direct from the factories, so you know they are the freshest ever! My husband loves potato chips and especially Utz’s and Martin’s BBQ, which we can’t get in Minnesota. We eat them when we go to PA. I discovered one time a few years ago that I could order them on line, so once in a while we treat ourselves. This is the first that I ordered Martin’s online. If companies do not have online access, they are missing out on a lot of sales, especially from out of state fans of their products.

I had to laugh, for the Martin’s chips, it cost more to mail them UPS (regular speed) than the chips cost! Bob asked me today how I hid the chips. I told him I had them shipped to a friend’s address, “sneaky”, he said! I told him it was a good thing he never looks in the trunk of my car, where I had everything else hidden. There is a pizza place in the bowling alley, and they kept a steady stream of pizzas coming for all our guests between 7 and 10, and a very good bartender, who didn’t want to take my tip at the end of the night because he said we were all so nice and he enjoyed working the party. When he wasn’t looking, I put the tip into his tip jar on the counter. The pizza staff was great too, they had a busy night, there was a party in their lounge, and the bowling alley was just packed with bowlers, and lots of pizzas going there. For all of you that live in Duluth, let me tell you the Golf Sky Dome room is a great place to have your party, and Dave’s pizza is delicious pizza!

As to the birthday guy, I read in the newspaper last week that “60 is the new 40”, and someone in church this morning made the same comment. Let’s hope that is true and that when we are 80 we will feel like the last generation felt at 60!

Happy 60th Bob!

PS when I get the photos back I post one or two...the photo above is one of those cute baby photos that a wife can't resist but to share with others!