80's Party

Saturday, March 7th was the surprise birthday party for my husband that I wrote about in a much earlier blog. Other than my husband complaining about not being able to get anything done that day because his friends wanted to wait until noon to go ice fishing, everything went pretty well.

And two technologies worked particularly well.

One was text messaging. Brad was able to text me all day giving me updates (such as the fish weren’ t biting). Those texts weren’t helpful; they just made me nervous that Robb would come home early. Brad was also able to text me when they left the lake, when Robb dropped him off, and then, as he followed him at a safe distance, when he turned down the gravel road towards our house. Everyone standing in the pitch dark garage was consistently updated. How were surprises pulled off before the advent of cells and texts??

The second was the DVD I burned of the slide show. It was a real hit. With one of the programs at school, I was able to make a "cover" slide, so it looked nice on the TV screen while I waited to show it to Robb and the guests. After Robb recovered from the shock (he was completely surprised), and after he dressed in his 80’s clothes (purple Zubaz, white high tops, ACDC T-shirt and Ray-bans), I played the show for everyone.

It was nice to be able to leave the DVD in the player and as new people came, they could watch the show if they wanted to. I didn’t have to worry about keeping a computer on all night or worry about someone not knowing how to work the program; it was as easy as pushing play on the DVD player.

On Sunday, Robb’s dad asked to borrow the DVD because he wanted to watch it again and also share it with some family members who didn’t come to the party.

The 80’s party theme surprised Robb, and many people laughed and reminisced over the baskets of tape cassettes and 80’s movies I put out for centerpieces. So, thanks Sue, for suggesting I google a few websites for ideas! And does anyone else remember listening to those ratty sounding tapes? And at the time, they were so much better than albums!

Now I must sign off and try to get all this Aqua Net out of my hair!!