Words of a Feather: Eric's Birthday

Friday was my boyfriend’s, Eric’s, birthday.

Earlier this month, I thought it would be an awesome idea to get him a bike as a gift for him. He had been talking about wanting one a lot now that he was back in school. His apartment was just that perfect distance…too far to walk and too close to drive.

I decided that since it was a pretty big gift, it would be the perfect thing to go in on with everyone as a sort of community gift. I talked to his mom and we brainstormed some ideas about how to get the bike that was closest to what he wanted (a good, simple road bike) and about how we could get it to him since we are both down here in CA.

So first came the scavenging around local bike shops to ask for advice on where to begin. We had little luck on finding anything more than a few tidbits of advice that were linked with ‘buy our really expensive bike because it’s exactly what you are looking for!’

A little frustrated, we put our thinking caps back on and ended up going to craigslist to look for the perfect bike with what little Intel that we had. On top of that, we were looking at the craigslist that was designated for Corvallis, OR. We decided it was time to get his brother, Ed, who lives with him, to help out. We found about 6 or 7 bikes that fit the profile of what we were looking for and I sent out emails explaining the situation to them, hoping to get quick responses.

Of the owners that we heard back from with the bikes that we liked, there seemed to be one that stood out over the others. It was a beautiful Vintage Japanese Shogun Road Bike. The frame was bright red and it fit into just about all the categories that Eric was really looking for in a bike.

Although a tad bit earlier than his birthday, Eric’s mom and I told Ed to go over and take a look at the bike and pick it up if he thought the bike was as good as it sounded. Next thing I know, the bike is ours!!! Ed slapped a bow on it and rushed it back to their apartment. Before he walked in the door, I gave Eric a call to get him upstairs and out of the way so the bike could be a surprise. Little did I know that Eric had gotten his new license in the mail that very same day. He was so intrigued by all the cool features on it, that I was able to send him downstairs, in an attempt to get him to see the bike, 3 separate times without him noticing anything but the licenses that he was comparing. Finally, his brother caught his attention and directed him into the kitchen and to his bike.

I was so excited to get to see his reaction to the bike, it was so awesome to see him run back up the stairs and look at me with this HUMUNGOUS grin that spread from ear to ear.

After the whole extravaganza with the bike, I decided to send him a little care package for him to get on his actual birthday.

The last time I visited him, we made some pretty amazing homemade mint-chocolate chip cookies. I thought that since I wouldn’t be able to be up there with him on his birthday and make him a cake, I would make him some of those cookies again.

If they look delicious to you and you want to make them, it’s actually quite simple. All you do is follow the cookie instructions on the Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Chips bag. But instead of adding all the chocolate chips, you substitute half of them with crushed Andes mints. Delicious.

Here are a few pictures of the cookies and a few other things that were in the package.