A Wife present?

Alright, so it has been a year since the celebration of the anniversary of my significant other's birth. This year the date fell on a Monday. I had to work. Flarg. That meant no pancakes. I wanted pancakes, even if I had to make them. Oh well. Off I go to work. Let me go back a day.

It is Sunday. I need to get the wife a present. I scored major brownie points last year by braving the estrogen laden ULTA. She still has some parfum. Damn. It will not be easy this year. I am constantly accused of not getting a "wife present." Whatever that means. So there I am, racking my brain for the gift idea. It is not coming. Crap. I've got family members asking what to get her. I tell them I'm not sure, get her an iTunes gift card. Can you see where I am going yet? No? Keep reading.

A few years ago I worked at Apple Computer. One fine year all of the employee's received a 1st Gen iPod Shuffle. Pretty cool. It worked for me for almost a year. I needed to upgrade though. I was able to procure an iPod Nano from Sandy Claws the next year. Sweet. A few months later I wanted the new and improved iPod Touch. Got it. Through each upgrade the old iPod got passed along to the wife. She never got her own brand new iPod.

On September 9, 2009, yes 09/09/09, Apple released a new iteration of their iPod Nano chock full of Appley goodness. It even came in several wonderful flavors. Skip ahead on the DVR of my life to the Sunday before the wife's birthday. Add in the fact that I have told people to get her an iTunes gift card and that proverbial light bulb started shining bright.

I loaded the sprog into the short bus and headed off to Best Buy. We went straight to the iPod counter and picked up the pink flavored iPod Nano. The sprog picked out some pretty nifty headphones.

I got home from work on Monday and got ready for dinner. This year we decided to deviate from our standard fodder and libations and traveled out to Roseville for some Ruby Tuesday's. Pretty tasty. The wife opens up the recycled gift bag and looks at me. In that moment I knew I did good. "My own iPod?" That's right honey, your own iPod. "Yay!" Excellent.

Now, I now that it was not diamonds, jewelry, parfum, or some other stuff; however, it was pink. That counts it as a wife present right?

Mission Accomplished

So I was awoken this morning in the normal Sunday fashion; Brighid strolled into our room and jumped on the bed. Okay, I can deal with that. After about 15 minutes I get up with her and head out to the living room. Fifteen minutes later comes the "I'm huuuungry" whine. I can not stand this. So I plop a bowl of Frosted Flakes down in front of her and turn on Sponge Bob while I head into the kitchen to attempt to not mangle some pancakes. Now, I've never made pancakes without the assistance of some sort of mix, i.e. Bisquick or some other sort of just add water mix. I pull down that good trusty red and white New Homes and Garden, I think, cookbook binder, thanks mom, and flip to pancakes. Perfect. I mix up a batch, add in some vanilla and cinnamon, and cook up some turkey sausage from a tube. It is now about 1030 so I usher the sprog into the bedroom with instructions to lay down next to mommy and say, "I smell pancakes and sausage." 45 minutes later and breakfast has been demolished. 

Now you may be wondering why I did not just do breakfast in bed for Melissa's birthday. All I have to say is I do not wish to sleep in syrup. 

Up next, present time. Yesterday Melissa was doing some sort of cheer stuff all day. Thankfully I only had to attend the first game to watch the little sprog do her thing. So when I got home her sprogginess was sent off to the nappytime and I headed over to ULTA. Yes, you read that correctly, ULTA. Luckily I knew exactly what I was searching for and found it quickly. 

For those of you that have never been into this establishment it is horrific for those without the critical estrogen levels. There were no guys present and I got some pretty funny looks. I grabbed what I was looking for and ran to the counter to pay. "Are you a rewards member?" the nice young lady behind the counter asks. Now, to be fair to her I am sure this is a question that they are required to ask of every customer; however, I stare at her as if she has asked if the sky was a rich hue of puke green and humbly state, "Uhm, no." Task completed and the sprint to the door made. 

Fast forward to today after breakfast. Melissa opens her little recycled gift bag from my birthday and takes out the parfum, DKNY Be Delicious. Just what she wanted! Score one for me. The box gets flipped over and she notices the ULTA tag. "You actually went in to ULTA for this?" Uhm, yeah. Add 100 more points for me. Yes! 

Later in the evening we head out to Chili's and the ribs. Mmm. Brighid once again amazed me with the speed and messy factor in which she can consume a basket of ribs. Melissa headed over to Hollywood Video to claim her prize of a free rental. This is the night of all nights that I dread. Right now I am choosing to ignore the fact that our Blu-ray player and HDTV are being sullied by the likes of Becoming Jane and am attempting to tune it out. It's hard. 

All in all I hope that Melissa had a pleasant 95th *chuckle* birthday.