My Plan: A convoluted and haphazard/random strategy of present gathering with presents dispersed throughout the week and in hidden forms as well a string of events during the evening of her Birthday.
The Details:
A) Gifts gathered (complete): new shirts, jewelry, and belt.
B) Events on her birthday (complete) : dinner (Red Lobser) and a movie (Couple's Retreat)
C) The Cake (complete): home-made cake with home-made icing with home-made ice cream
All in all it was a success. I used a golden cake recipe ala Alton Brown which worked, but was not as moist as I liked. Post analysis has indicated that the online recipe may not have the right amount of milk listed as in the TV episode. The icing was a failure as it turned into more of a chocolate whipped cream (great for eclairs), which was used as a filler between cake layers. I resorted to a can of chocolate icing. The ice cream, made with the new 5200 vita-mix was more of a milk shake and didn't turn out. Although the recipes were mediocre at best it was a successful event. The wife enjoyed her live main lobster (which was brought to the table alive first to show her it was a fresh lobster "the kids freaked!"). The movie was decent. I recommend it to married couples (those married for a decent amount of time and no longer experiencing the honeymoon era are the ideal target audience).The bottom line? I love my wife very much and hope she won't forget this birthday for a long time. I hope to have at least 30 more years to perfect my home-made cake recipe and home-made icing (and maybe one day I'll try the ice cream again).
