This guy is tops

September 16th was a special day.

My awesome rock-my-world husband turned 30 years of age.

I think he looks remarkably preserved.

I was so excited his b-day was going to fall on one of his Fridays off!!  I had so many crazy ideas for what we could do.  Rent an oceanside condo and hope it doesn't rain.  Spend the weekend in the city in some crazy fancy hotel and laugh about how we shouldn't open or touch anything except the free ice.  Or just toss a bunch of money in a pot and let him decide where to go or what to do.

Considering he ended up having to work some over time on the day of, I'm glad none of these plans worked out.  There is a part of me that knows some crazy spontaneous surprise would be just the bees knees.  But, then again, Adam's an old fart who is quite set in his ways.  Plus, you need a credit card to do most of this stuff and we share one so a bunch of frivolous charges showing up might raise an eyebrow or two.

So, I think I did the smart thing by leaving it up to Adam.  Check out his gifts......

I got up as soon as I heard the door close on Friday morning @ around 7:30am.

If there was one thing I knew I could do to make Adam's birthday 1000% awesome, it would be to get all the payday grocery shopping done before he got home.

I had my list ready, dinners lined up, even remembered to grab my grocery bags!!

Got all the way down to my car (and if you have been up and down my steps, adding the flight to the garage, you'll know what I mean) when I realized uh. . .no monies in the bank.

Back up the stairs, shoved the key into my ridiculously sticky lock (hate you!) and made sure to transfer the money I would need.  Man, I'm glad I realized that then instead of at the register with a shopping cart full of sundries.

Shopping at Wal*mart @ 8:30am was like the most blissful shopping experience ever.

It was like I was gliding through the aisles, no old ladies stopping to gab about sores and aching joints, no guttersnipes getting caught up in my wheels, no fiendish track-suit wearing mom grabbing the last bag of the good cinnamon bread!

All the checkers were bright and early, starting their shifts and smiling as they waited for me at their registers.  Oh, which lane to choose?  Which lane to choose?  Any will do, really.

Suffice it to say, it is totally worth getting up super early for that kind of shopping experience.

And it was probably the best birthday present ever.  So says Adam.  And well. . .that's who counts.

The day before, I found Adam's pocket knife which he'd been missing for a week or so.

Since I've got kind of a thing for wrapping anything and everything I can get my hands on (can't wait for you, Christmas!!!!) I just had to.

He was pleasantly surprised, as evidenced by his face.

I know it's super lame to get someone underwear or, if you're a guy and you didn't pick it out, any clothing at all for your birthday.  But seriously.  This boy needed some new church socks.

I believe I spent about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes in the JCPenney mens socks section.

It is super hard to pick out black socks, y'all.

Blast if I didn't just spend 1 minute too long because I got in line behind the ONLY other lady in the store and she had problem after question after coupon after penny.

Adam wore the socks on the following Sunday.  He looked pretty dapper if I do say so myself.  And I did.

I like how this picture looks like he is posing for another camera.  I am the only one there.

A few months ago, I had told Adam I was hoping to plan a little party for him.  It wouldn't be a surprise time or location but I was hoping to have a surprise theme.

I figured since he was turning 30 and becoming a real man and. . .well, real men always have mustaches

(see Ron Swanson). . .a mustache party would be hilarious.

I just kept laughing about it so he says to me, "It isn't gonna be a mustache party, is it?"

.........crickets........

Me:  Haha.  No.

A few days later, I couldn't hold it in anymore.  Not because I can't keep secrets (I'm the best there is) but because I couldn't believe he'd guessed it.  I thought for sure he'd found my secret notes!

I told him.

His reply:  "What?  Really?!  I didn't even know that was a thing!  I was just making it up."

Yeah.  That's why we're married.  Only us.

And the coup de grace.......................

He was so freaking excited about this tablet!  This was his big expensive gift.

And he'd been waiting months and months to get it.

It came in the mail on Tuesday but he had to wait until Friday to open it.  It wasn't a serious rule and, in fact, was one that he came up with.  If pressed, I probably would have let him check it out as soon as it came.

He carefully sliced his knife through the packing tape and raised the lid and. . . . . . . .

Yeah.

Best.  Birthday.  Ever.

After some initial grumbling and crying into my shoulder (not really) it's off to the computer to complain and get a new one sent out right away!!!

Though the mood had turned somewhat sour, we just couldn't stay upset for very long.

Not when there was birthday pie and mustache fun to be had!

Way back when I first got excited about actually planning a surprise mustache party with friends (before Adam decided he wanted it to be just him and me, aw how sweet) I ordered a chocolate mold for mustache lollies.

They turned out amazingly!  And were super delicious.  I am not sorry I dished out $5.00 which was mostly shipping.

I tried to get a picture of Adam with his birthday pie, candles lit, but he blinked!  Then blew out the candles before I could check to make sure the picture came out right.

Always in a rush for pie, that kid.

So, I had him re-light his own candles and go for take two.

And you can't even tell they're lit.  Nice smile, though, Adam.

Eating pie and consoling himself with his laptop; read not a tablet :(

It was pretty good pie.  Thanks Costco.  And Dustin and Michael for dropping off one extra delicious piece with cinnamon on top, specially for the birthday guy.

And. . . .6 days later. . . .

Ah.  Sweet unbroken and time-consuming tablet merriment.

I asked for a smile.

Love my birthday boy.

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

I miss my job at Sharp's.  I miss the consistency of a schedule.  I miss the people and the silly fun we had, especially after closing.  Turning every chore into a game.  Freezing people's keys in blocks of ice.  Making instructional videos on how to mop a floor or properly cut an onion; complete with chef who wants to be left alone, annoying host lady who won't shut up and an already finished onion prepared and ready to show.

I miss the regularity of customers I learned to recognize over 4 years.  I miss greeting them by name and ringing up their order before they even approached the counter.  I miss that 6th sense of knowing exactly what people wanted in drive-thru, even if they could never quite vocalize it correctly.

I miss a steady paycheck.  I even miss the times I got all the way to the bank before realizing Bud or John didn't sign it.  I miss knowing every conceivable in and out of a business.  I miss training newbs, learning them up in the ways of the burger ranch.  I miss hearkening back to my first few weeks and using that experience to remind myself how difficult and scary it was so I could make new employees feel more at ease.

I miss Sundays alone, sliding my glasses down to the end of my nose as I added up the profits of the week and recorded them with precision in "the book," putting the ice cream machine back together and pretending like I was building some futuristic weapon that would change the world and singing sad country songs about missing dogs and forgiving wayward sons at the top of my lungs.

I miss bad jokes and word games to pass the time on those slow nights.  I miss being useful.  Being counted upon.  I miss the camaraderie when things just plain sucked.  I may even miss screaming my entire way home when customers were mean.  I miss the confidence, the independence and the accomplishment I felt with every task.  That knowing smile or a "Good Job!" stamp on my bonus.  I miss being recognized for my hard work.

I miss the parking lot after close, whether it was throwing empty bottles over the roof into the garbage can or sharing our deepest thoughts about the world.  I miss impromptu fashion shows with the Lost & Found drawer.

I miss giving people rides home and trying to fit bicycles into the trunk of my Ford Escort.  I miss the feeling of that shower after getting home, washing off the smell of grease or success or whatever it was.  I miss watching new kids try to scoop fries as the bag keeps sliding off the handle - smiling to myself that one day. . .oh, one day, they'll get it.  I miss doing inventory, ordering the produce, signing off on shipments, stacking the boxes of patties, making 3 lbs of bacon at 7am, filling the shake flavors, icing the salad bar, washing the windows, stocking the mini-fridge, and making bank runs with $2000 cash in my pocket.  Especially when I got to take someone along and we could act paranoid as if the guy behind us was after that money and we had to make it through all the green lights before he caught up to us.

I miss all of it.  Not because it was anything special but because it was mine.  It was my job.  And I was amazing at it.

Fear & Loathing Blogger.com

I have spent two days composing the picture blog for the Anderson Family Reunion.  I accidentally click the undo button and it wipes the entire entry clean?  What is that about?  Undo means undo EVERYTHING?  Not just the last thing I did?

And my mere human hands weren't fast enough to redo or undo the undo before it was autosaved.  What kind of demented programmer allows someone to autosave a BLANK entry????Q!?!?!!??!/kl421jkjklwrejnfekjl;sfelj

Anger doesn't begin to describe my hatred for you right now, blogger.  Does not.  Even.  Come.  CLOSE!

By the way, thanks for autosaving this every 2 friggin' seconds.  Wouldn't wanna lose these precious thoughts!