Happy Birthday, Tom!

You may recognize this from last year. When Tom got that look on his face (see below) I reminded him of last year's ice cream sundaes and his look changed to one of amazed delight. Sometimes repetition is a wonderful thing. Done and done.

Tom always gets this look on his face when I ask him for a decision about something like this. What kind of cake does he want for his birthday? (His 66th birthday! So I'm willing to go all out — or to enlist Rose's help in doing so.)

It's the look of someone who ... though he has tons of imagination otherwise ... has no imagination when it comes to birthday cake. This is a problem I cannot relate to.

My mission — fulfill the dream that he can't come up with.

You can see the answer. When someone gives up ice cream for Lent year after year, because it is the most perfect food they can imagine — well it doesn't take much imagination to come up with a substitute for birthday cake (not a thing I'm ever going to need to do for myself, but Tom got a big smile on his face when I suggested it).

So sundaes it is! I've got four kinds of ice cream (66th birthday, after all!) - vanilla, milk chocolate, coffee, and white chocolate raspberry swirl. Chocolate sauce. Butterscotch caramel sauce. Toasted pecans. Whipped cream. And maraschino cherries because ... it's not a sundae otherwise. (Though Tom feels otherwise. I tell you, I do not understand this guy sometimes.)

Also I have many gifts, chosen with great difficulty because he's the kind of guy whose whims begin at $2,000. The way it is with a lot of people attracted to tech and cars and so on.

Happy, happy 66th birthday, Tom! We're gonna use the big bowls tonight - in your honor!