I Can Be Productive

I am a great procrastinator, but sometimes I can be really productive. Like today, for instance. I woke up early and baked another kugel for the synagogue's luncheon tomorrow. While that was in the oven, I printed up t-shirt transfers to make party favors for Moose's 5th birthday party tomorrow. Wizard monitored the printing and laid all the transfers out to dry while I ironed 14 white t-shirts. Let me tell, I don't ordinarily iron t-shirts, but the instructions said I had to. So I did.

After I took the kugel out of the oven, I began ironing the transfers on the shirts. This was a slow methodical process that was kind of hard on my messed-up hands. Center and align the sheet, then iron on high heat. Press, press, press carefully in one direction. Press, press, press, carefully in another direction. My brainstorm was putting the t-shirt on the cold tile floor to cool off. Once the transfers were cool, Wizard peeled off the backing and checked each shirt. Wizard wanted to try ironing, so I let him. He did a great job, finishing 7 shirts in the time I ran to Wal-Mart for more ribbon. We all took a break for lunch and then finished the shirts. Wizard rolled them up carefully, according to my instructions and I tied them with brightly colored grosgrain ribbon and tagged them.

Once that project was done, I turned my attention to Wild Thing's community project that is due on Monday, March 19th. He is supposed to use things around the house to create a building in our community. Not surprisingly, the teacher gave WT a hospital to build. I downloaded some pictures and logos of our local hospital and made little signs for the main entrance and emergency room. I taped two small boxes together to make a big building and cut out parts of the boxes to make WT's hospital look just like our community hospital. Then, I turned the project over to Wizard to practically do by himself oversee WT's work.

While the boys were building the hospital, I looked over the contracts and arrangements for the surprise 50th birthday dinner I'm throwing for WineGuy next weekend. I sat down with the menus and wine lists and threw caution to the wind. I'm going to spend a bundle on a man who never spends a dime on himself. He deserves it! I did something similarly extravagant for our 10th anniversary a few years ago: I personally chose a custom case of wine for him to enjoy. The wine store printed tasting notes on everything, and I wrote a poem to go with it. I delivered everything to the big, fancy hotel, and the presented it to him while we had dinner.

This time around I'm throwing a wine dinner for WineGuy. There will be us and five other couples. Most friends are local, but WineGuy's best friend from medical school and his wife are coming to town for a conference that weekend. I've told everyone it's a surprise and not to bring any gifts. I told WineGuy that we're going to dinner at the fancy hotel restaurant with the two visiting friends. He has no idea what's coming. I bought some cute decorations at the party store. I hope the hotel will put them up that afternoon. I've ordered two balloon bouquets with 50th birthday and Happy Birthday balloons . . . no "Over The Hill" or old fart stuff because that would offend WineGuy. I have a meeting on Monday morning with the hotel's assistant food and beverage director to finalize menu and wine selections. The last thing I need to do this week is to buy WineGuy one smashingly special bottle of wine as a present.

I'm confident the boys and I can keep this a secret for the next week. They're excited, too. I've got my party notebook all organized with dividers. Wish me luck!