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So here’s how everything went down leading up to the surprise party yesterday. Weeks ago, I called Jim’s boss to make sure he could have a weekend day off. The bossman said he was scheduled to be off yesterday, so I set the party up for that day. I asked Russ to invite Jim to go golfing. That way, Russ could stall if need be, and I’d have plenty of time to shop and clean on Sunday before people arrived. On Thanksgiving, Russ invited him - imagine my surprise when Jim said, “I have to work”, because I knew darn well he was off! Turns out he was having bigwigs to the store the day after, so he wanted to go in yesterday to just make sure everything was perfect. Sheesh! So I invented a story about being interviewed by the local newspaper about being involved in PayPerPost, and told Jim there would be a photographer coming over on Sunday, so he had to be home by 3pm. I’ve been in the newspaper in the past (for good, not evil - no mugshots) so he fell for it. He even bragged to people at work!
Sunday morning rolls around, and he decides NOT to go to work! He had been there the night before til 2am and was wiped out. So now not only is he NOT golfing, but he’s NOT going to work, and talking about staying home all day and doing the Christmas lights and our tree. ARGH! We ran to Target to get lights and once we got home I set our son to pestering dad to go to the driving range. That worked, but it was the quickest trip there ever! He called me about 2:20pm and said they were on their way home. Mind you, the party was to start at 2pm, and no one had arrived yet. I told him the newspaper people weren’t there yet, and asked him to stop at the store for dinner. I called him again while he was at the store and talked to our son, and told him to pretend that he had to go potty and to take a LONG time in there. That worked. People arrived, Jim wasn’t home yet, all was well.
Our friends hid in the family room when he pulled up, and he came into the kitchen and saw the trays of cheese and such for the party…and assumed it was there for the newspaper thing. He was impressed that I was feeding them! He was putzing around in the kitchen and still hadn’t realized anything was up. He tried to hand me groceries and I told him the fridge was too full, and to put the food in our garage fridge. FINALLY he walked towards and family room and saw everyone - phew!
I was about to have a coronary over this whole surprise deal. Next year - a regular birthday!
This entry was posted on Monday, November 27th, 2006 at 4:06 pm and is filed under Daily Happenings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
How sweet! Glad you were able to pull it off.
Sheesh!! You should throw a surprise party for me - I’d be much more cooperative! LOL!
[…] I just got interviewed for a local newspaper, and no, I’m not making this up as a cover story for a surprise party. I was contacted because of my dealings (and deep love) for PayPerPost. The reporter said the article would probably be out next week, so my Orlando-area peeps need to keep an eye out! 7th Dec | […]
My dad planned a surprise party for my mom one year, and then had a devil of a time convincing her to go out with her friend that was to keep her occupied all day and deliver her to the party lol I’m glad that you managed to pull it off though! I would love to get a surprise party, but I have a sneaking suspicion I’d make it rather difficult to pull off.