the big 37

Rick celebrated his 37th birthday on Monday. Or rather, I celebrated Rick's birthday. :) I wanted to make it special for him, so I was really excited to finally unveil his gift.

I had to get up early to get into work, so as soon as the alarm went off, I hopped out of bed and started the preparations. A healthy serving of chocolate cake and a pint of vanilla ice cream. Check. Single candle to adorn and light the piece of cake. Check. Glass of milk. Check. And so up the stairs I walked, trying to avoid tripping over the dogs. With the cake lit, I entered the dark room, Rick still soundly asleep in bed. I woke him up, and half groggy, he wasn't really ready to wake up, so I left it on the nightstand while I went to stage his present.

I went into the office and pulled out the framed print. We had seen this print when we were in Lanesboro last December. While we were waiting for a play to begin, in the lobby of the theater was this color pencil drawing of his town (population 800) Lanesboro. It showed the school where he spent his grade school years, the church he used to attend with his grandma, the main street in town where he had bar tended. It was also the same bird's eye view we had when we went to the top of the bluff to take photos before we left. All in all, I knew I had to buy this for him.

I called the theater as soon as we returned from our trip and I had it in hand just a few days after Christmas. I immediately knew this was going to be his birthday present. I took the printed, a signed, limited edition, into the frame shop and picked out a rustic looking wood frame -- perfect for this print, along with a mat to accentuate the image. And by the end of February, it was complete.

I'd been hiding it in the office closet just for this occasion. I hadn't wrapped it, so I set it up against the wall, and went back into the bedroom to get Rick. There he was sitting up in bed, eating his chocolate cake and ice cream, watching the Golf Channel. :)

I blind folded him and walked him into the office, set him facing the framed picture, gave him a big hug and took off the blindfold. Looking over my shoulder, he scanned the room, looking a little confused. I pointed out the artwork there on the floor. At first he didn't know what it was, and then all of a sudden he realized what it was.

"What? When? How?" I told him the story of how I'd called the theater, and so on, and here it was. We sat down on the floor to look at the detailed shops, homes and buildings. On the back was a sheet of paper with information on the artist. Turns out the artist is a cousin to one of his good friends back home.

And so began Rick's birthday day.

For dinner, I'd made reservations for Icon Grill in downtown. I really liked their ambiance and thought it would be the perfect cozy, yet funky restaurant for dinner. We had a lovely dinner -- our server recommended the meatloaf and so we both had that, with a butternut squash soup as a starter. But the real draw for the birthday dinner at Icon Grill was their homemade HoHo inspired birthday cake and ice cream. By this point he was stuffed, but he made room and enjoyed the chocolate delicacy.

All the while we entertained ourselves by eavesdropping on the people at the table behind me. Occasionally we'd hear very peculiar words for dinner conversation - masturbation, bisexual, etc. Not sure what the deal was. An older guy with a young college age girl. By body language it was clear that their relationship was platonic, and as we strained to hear bits and pieces of their dialogue, I could make out parts of the discussion. She was asking relationship advice about her girlfriend, and there must have been some complicating factors with her girlfriend also dating some guy. They left just in time for dessert to arrive, so we felt we'd gotten our entertainment for the evening.

Rick was pretty much comatose with all of the food and sugar, and so we arrived home and promptly retired to bed for the evening.

To cap off his birthday, he had another day off of work yesterday to enjoy at the golf course. And today now marks his first day at the new hospital. He's had quite a week.