Surprises Never Work

I have pretty much given up on surprises--I never seem to be able to pull them off. This year I wanted to take Mike to the Fogo de Chao restaurant that just opened in Scottsdale because (1) he loves Brazilian steakhouses and (2) he helped engineer it, but missed the fancy open house for everyone who helped create it. So, I conspired with my Mom and Gary, who are so generous in babysitting for us whenever we ask, and dropped Ethan off at my mom's office with enough time to show up at Mike's work and park next to his car 10 minutes before he got off. Of course he was pretty confused to see me sitting there.

Me: "We're going to dinner."
Mike: "Ok...is it somewhere where we can take home leftovers?"
Me: "Um, well, I wanted to take you to the Fogo place *there goes the surprise.*"
Mike: "Because Patrick and Mike (friends at work) took me out to lunch for my birthday and I just ate the leftovers."

Well, of course we couldn't go to a Brazilian steakhouse without big appetites, so instead we drove by it so Mike could see the finished product, went to a Trader Joe's next door to it because Mike had never been to one, but was very interested, and then spent a few hours at the outlet mall near us. Mike used his birthday and leftover Christmas money to buy a new suit and a tux for his future concerts.

So, no surprise yummy dinner, but we still had fun. And, hey, maybe now we won't have to think so hard about what to do for Valentine's Day.