That is me… at the thing… the thing you have been waiting for me to tell you about. Unfortunately, I can’t really post any pictures of the actual thing… for privacy reasons… so you get to look at pictures of stuff that relate to the thing… and pictures of little old me.

My wife took that picture of me, on the balcony at the fancy hotel, right before we left for the thing. And what was the thing, you ask?

Let me adopt a sexy, thoughtful pose whilst I consider how best to tell you about the thing.

Enjoy this picture of the sunset from in front of the hotel while I try to figure out the best way to say it.

Okay… the thing is… no, not one of my usual ‘the thing is’ kind of a ‘thing’… this is the actual thing! My wife had a birthday. It was one of those end-of-the-decade birthdays.

The hotel sent that fancy desert to the room. The wine, well, my wife brought a few of those herself… in my suitcase.

So… I hear you all saying… along with a few choice swearwords… that is the big thing we have been waiting for? A birthday party? Yes… and no…

Because my wife thought we were just going to a fancy restaurant on Coronado island for a nice little dinner… just the two of us… But my daughters… (especially Jessica, the older one, who was a wedding planner, and, you might remember, just got engaged)… have been planning a little surprise since before Christmas.

I will share a few pictures of San Diego taken from the patio of the restaurant while I fill you in on the details. My daughter arraigned for a makeup and hairstylist to come to our room at the hotel, and my wife got the full-on beauty and glamour treatment. (She also got a day pass to the hotel spa, and was massaged with hot rocks and who all knows what else)…

So my wife gets all dolled up, and puts on the dress we got her for Christmas, still thinking that her gift was a weekend with me… (and, seriously, who doesn’t want that for Christmas and their birthday???)… at a fancy hotel, with a romantic bayside dinner thrown in.

But when we get to the restaurant, guess who was there… practically everybody in the world that she cares about…

And me… looking like that… oh, yeah.

Yeah, it was the most awesome surprise party in history!!!

Family and friends flew or drove in from all over the country.

There were so many ways during all those months that the surprise could have been ruined…

But we pulled it off.

And it was freekin’ awesome.

Oh… Mollie, my youngest, took a lot of pictures of the party. That is Jessica’s engagement ring, which I forgot to show you back when I was doing the posts about our crazy desert trip.

And that… that right there is a piñata of my wife… because it was a fiesta-themed party. No, it doesn’t do her justice, but it isn’t bad considering they did it from a small photograph my daughter sent them. The thing is… (and yes, this is indeed on of my patented ‘things’)… but when I was talking with Jessica about party ideas, I thought it would be funny to make a piñata of my wife… like get a generic human-shaped one and glue a printed picture of her face on it… and Jess loved that idea, but she did some research and found a place that actually makes them… so, once again, one of my brilliant get-rich-quick schemes has been stolen out from under me.

Anyway, there is the cake… and the fact that it was a fiesta-themed party… and I drank way to many margaritas… might explain the look on my face in this last picture…

HA!