Amandapalooza!!!

An explanation is in order for the countdown box on the right of this blog. The Girlfriend did an excellent job of surprising me on my last birthday.

It started on a Thursday last April. Mom came to town to watch the dogs for me while we drove to Nashville. She had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday, so she decided to stay for the weekend. It made sense to me, but little did I know she was in collaboration with certain sneaky parties.

We went to Nashville on Thursday for the hockey game.

I had bought party zone tickets, so I immediately began trying to get my money's worth in beer. By the time the game was over, I didn't really care that the Pred's had lost. We had a good time anyway. After the game, The Girlfriend caved to my request for a trip to a strip club. I had envisioned a night of drinking while being surrounded by half nekkid women vying for my attention. We ended up at "Anthony's Show Club" and let me tell you, Anthony's place sucks! The lights were bright, the women were homely and I never did get a waitress to bring me a drink. We left after about 10 minutes and decided to go back to Broadway. The Girlfriend had done a little research and had found a bar she wanted to check out. We stood in line to get in this bar for about 5 minutes when I realized that most of the people in line were young enough to be my kids (assuming I had any). The final straw was the cat fight between two teeny boppers that were just old enough to get some sailor in trouble. We decided to leave, but not before I was entertained by one Lolita in the fight screaming at the other "Suck my dick, bitch!" That was good for a laugh.

So we walked up to "The Stage" which was the first bar we passed that we could hear music coming out. We started drinking pretty heavy and swaying to the dulcet sounds of "The Devil Went Down To Georgia." Sometimes a good country band with a great fiddle player is just what the soul needs.

We stumbled back to the hotel room and went to bed around three or four. Friday, we drove back to Jackson were I spent the day recuperating and The Girlfriend went to work at seven that night. Around midnight she calls me at home and tells me to go check my mail box. I go to the mailbox and what do I find? Hockey tickets! Fourth row for Saturday, my birthday!

So Saturday, we drive back to Smashville around two in the afternoon. She takes me to Demo's for dinner, which was nice, and then when we were finishing our wine she hands me a card. When I open the card out falls a piece of paper and this piece of paper reads:

"On April 1st, Bat will ride the Zamboni for the pregame ice resurfacing."

SNAP! I had mentioned months ago how cool it would be to ride the Zamboni. The Girlfriend had called the Preds and arranged it! The whole time she was doing this, I thought she had to work on my birthday so we were celebrating on the Thursday before. That's one sneaky girlfriend. So here is what the ice looks like from the Zamboni. And this is what a happy camper looks like riding the Zamboni.

The Preds won a great game with quite a bit of drama and several fights. You could hear the thump of the puck on Vokoun's pads and when the bodies slammed the boards you could feel it in your chair.
I thanked The Girlfriend properly. I was kissing her although it looks like I'm trying to chew her face off. She gave me a few other gifts that night that were just as good or better than a Zamboni ride, but some things are just for me and her. We drove back to Jackson on Sunday and I've spent the better part of the next couple of days trying to recover.

Now I'm faced with trying to match that for The Girlfriend's birthday. I've come up with Amandapalooza!!!, a four day event Thanksgiving weekend. She has no idea what we are going to do for the first couple of days. All she knows is that we are going to Nashville. Saturday night we have tickets to the Pred's first home game against the Red Wings and then Sunday we are going to the Giants/Titans game. The rest is a secret, but I am using it to my advantage. Everytime she gets mad at me or gets pouty, I bring up Amandapalooza!!! I'm milking it for all that it's worth. Anyway, she placed the countdown on her blog and I decided to put it on mine as well.