Have a seat, this one is going to take a while. As you saw in yesterday's post, we were working on a birthday party for Ginny. Mary Beth suggested a surprise party and I thought that sounded good to me. I got Pat in on the conspiracy. Being female, she likes to have secrets. She can also be trusted. So the basic plan was to manage to get Ginny to Bloke's house about 3pm.

Now about the logistics. Yesterday I drove all over town to get the herb garden parts and food for the party. No big deal, right? Wrong. Last night we were going somewhere in the car and Ginny noticed that I had put 130 miles on the car during that day. Why would she notice that? Because she notices everything. So I had to contend with answering the question of how could I possibly put 130 miles on the car. I hemmed and hawed explaining lamely that I ran around with Bloke and did stuff. I got through that without mishap.

Then this morning as she was packing up the van with crap, excuse me I meant stuff, for a garage sale she was having jointly with Pat, she noticed that the rear seat was pushed forward and some towels were spread out. Remember she notices everything. I dealt with that by explaining that Bloke and I hauled some old tires over to Bob's hangar and I needed the room and didn't want to mess up the van.

Fortunately further cross examination was avoided because when she got back from the garage sale she was anxious to have a shower quickly because we planned to go get a cell phone for her. Think about it. For a female type person getting a communications enhancing device would certainly elicit Pavlov type response. Now I had told her we were going to do this for a few days. That was my excuse to keep her distracted and an excuse to get into the car with the eventual objective of arriving at Bloke's house for the surprise party.

Now good old Pat was going to ride with us. She kept asking how I was going to pull this all off (like I had some well thought out plan HAHAHAHAHAHA). I kept telling her that we would just see how it goes. We headed off to the phone store and blew a bunch of time there because there was quite a line of people wasting money on cell phones. I called Pat and told her that I would get Ginny to call her first with her new phone and that she (Pat) should tell her to come over so she could see her new phone. As we were leaving the phone store I asked Ginny who her first call would be to. She said she could call me (as we were standing and looking at each other from a distance of two feet, at best.) I mentioned that it might be fun to call one of her frequent communicators like Pat. She thought that was cool. Pat did as suggested and invited Ginny over to see the phone. Ginny declined. So we continued home all the while Ginny was calling people and communicating in her own unique style. When we got to our neighborhood, I drove past the house and Ginny was (obviously) surprised. I told her we were going to Pat's house which she thought was cool because she could show Pat her phone. Wait, I thought I just said she didn't want to go show Pat her phone. That was ten minutes ago, time flies!

When we got to Pats, I asked Pat if she was ready to go, and she got her sweater and we headed out the door with Ginny somewhat baffled. We started driving and she had no clue. I stopped at a quick store for a bag of ice which Ginny noted “This is different.” That's female for "what the hell is this?" When we arrived at Bloke's house, Mary Beth and Bloke were waiting with leis (those plastic things you put around your neck) and the party began. Mary Beth had put out all the food I brought and we were ready to party. A liberal supply of mimosas were on hand and we had a great time. Part of the fun was seeing the siding remodeling job that was going on at Bloke's. It looks really nice. He has transformed his abode from a hut to a house in one rather expensive stroke.

Of course we sang Happy Birthday, suitably lubricated with mimosas. The photo for today is Pat, Ginny and Mary Beth (the queens of estrogen) enjoying a light moment (are there any other type at a party?) before cutting into the nice key lime cheesecake that Mary Beth brought. We gave Ginny some presents including the herb garden (see yesterday) and I was vindicated somewhat for putting 130 miles on the car in one day. I am glad we did this. The actual party was almost as much fun as the conspiracy. We will have to see what the next event on the LaPorte Escadrille Social Calendar might be.