Happy Birthday, Honey

It's birthday time for my dear husband. Feels like we just did this. Time is flying by.

Believe it or not, I am nearly ready for tonight’s little party: sweet tea’s brewed, shrimp linguine’s made, bread and salad are ready to go and the German Chocolate Cake is baked and frosted. I still need to make pb & j sandwiches for the little people who don’t like the shrimp (so sad) but other than that I’m ready and I still have 90 minutes until our friends arrive. I just hope Sean will be here before Molly and Jeff.

Sean’s favorite part of his birthday is the fact that the 2008 North American International Auto Show opens around the same time of his special day. And this year is no different; we’re heading over to Detroit this weekend for our annual pilgrimage to the shrine of everything new and shiny on four wheels. The kids and I are always excited as we prepare for the trip, but after three hours the girls and I are ready to hijack one of those concept cars and bust out of Cobo Hall. Sean and Michael, on the other hand, could look for hours.

Last year we took the wagon because I knew Rebecca would need a break, and because the boys collect so many brochures they can’t hold them all. Michael’s second bag actually broke last year. Thank goodness we had the wagon or the 278 brochures might have been lost forever! (Now they’re just lost forever under his bed. He gets that honestly because that’s where Sean stores his.) I don’t know what we’ll do this year; I have a feeling Rebecca will take it as an affront if I take the wagon.

When Sean was in college, a portion of his parents’ home burned. All of the brochures and car magazines Sean had collected until that point were lost. I used to feel badly for him about that; now I am so thankful. I don’t know how to manage all the ones he’s collected over the last 12 months; I really don’t know what I would do with brochures dating back to the early 70’s.

So Sean will spend his weekend looking at cars, reading about cars and (probably) dreaming about cars. Like his dad always says, they can watch cars or women. I’ll take cars.