Dad's Birthday

So, on August 14, Dad turned the distinguished age of 64. For a year, he's been saying he wanted to learn how to play the mandolin. So, among other things, that's what he got. He ordered the one he wanted from Ebay about three weeks before his birthday. Which meant we received it two weeks before the big event. Which meant we had to REALLY hide the sucker for that length of time.

Now, it is important to know that our apartment seriously lacks space in general, much less hiding space. Pretty much every nook and cranny is stuffed full of something. So, creativity was a must. But, thank goodness, we found a suitable hiding spot in the well known chaos that is otherwise known as my bedroom. And, despite many casual attempts (that I'm sure he thought were well disguised but sooooo not), Dad never found the not so surprising surprise.

Being that he knew what he was getting, Mom and I toiled long and hard on how to best make this birthday a surprising event. Which miraculously worked out quite well. I had sneakily purchased a DVD for Dad that he kept slipping onto the Netflix queue, despite my several covert operations to remove it from said queue. Seriously, he out it on (and I removed it) FOUR times. Sheesh. But, somehow, he never realized what was happening until the day he opened his coveted disc of Captain Correlli's Mandolin (are you seeing the theme here?).

But the best surprise of all involved the actual mandolin. Dad and I had this wonderful Friday night tradition of staying up obscenely late to watch Whale Wars. And when I say obscenely late, I mean the show didn't start until 1 A.M. But we were addicted and couldn't help ourselves. Well, on this particular Friday night, we were both lagging a bit. So, at about 11:30, I went into my room and wrapped his gift. At precisely midnight on August 14, 2010...this is what occurred.

Okay...once technical issues are resolved, video will be posted here.

Until then, here's the synopsis. At exactly midnight, Mom and I marched out of my room, wrapped package in tow, singing "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Dad was immensely surprised...and had no problem staying up long enough to watch Whale Wars. :)