Surprising Pat

I let the cat out of the bag to Kathy & Phil Miller - told them yesterday was Pat's birthday. I'd asked him earlier in the week if he wanted me to invite anyone for dinner. No. His plan was to spend the day golfing. Guests for dinner seemed like too much fuss, I guess. Eating with just Bill and me would be fine.

So be it.

But around noon I stopped to visit Kathy & Phil. After I left, Kathy decided to make a cake. She called Tom & Barb Armstrong and, happily - since it's 12 miles to the nearest store - they had some ice cream to go with it. It was decided that there would be a surprise for Pat at 7:30 at the Armstrong's. All this happened around 5:45. Tom called Bill and then came next door to my office to tell me that we should find some excuse to come back "downtown" after dinner.

I made a quick celebration of a spaghetti dinner (Pat had been rained out of his golf game) and asked Bill, in passing, if he would come down to the office with me after dinner to help me decide how to decorate the bathroom. It's harder to lie than to act, I notice. Especially when your husband winks at you while you are trying nonchalantly to set up the surprise!

Pat said later that if he had added up all the little clues he would have guessed.

Tom called Pat at about 7:15 to say his DVD player wasn't working, and would Pat come and have a look at it. Apparently this had happened before and apparently Tom and Barb are notoriously bad with technical things. So Pat thought nothing of it. He came on down, arriving just in time for the cake and candles, and seemed pleased, after all, to be surprised and celebrated.