I am pretty proud of myself. I managed to throw Lee a surprise party and he didn't catch on until the guests started to arrive. I can still surprise him, even after 30+ years. Yeah me!

Lee has been saying that he would like to do a 7-11 pub crawl - go from one 7-11 to the next having a drink at each one, which can be pretty impressive considering there's a 7-11 every two blocks and they sell a wide array of alcohol. But in the next breath he'll say he really would prefer to do his drinking at home. So I figured I should throw him a party that combined 7-11, home and drinking.

The problem with throwing him a birthday party is that his birthday is in June, after everyone has disappeared for the summer. So instead I chose the day that was 7 months and 11 days after his real birthday (7-11, get it?) but that didn't work out. The next idea was to combine it with our tentative plans to celebrate the anniversary of my not getting killed in a bike accident. It made a great distraction from the surprise of it actually being his birthday party.

My friend Jen made decorations for the hall.

Guests were instructed to bring a food to share, purchased at 7-11 and, if they chose to bring a gift, they had to have bought it from 7-11 and spent less than 200NT (about $7). The food table was mostly covered with chips and microwavable chicken pieces. Mmmm.

 I gave one friend special permission to break the food rule so she could bake birthday brownies.

You'd be surprised by what can you get at the 7-11 for 200NT. First off, "Benign Girl," from the Sweet Delivery Girls Series by Jie Star.

But also this...

many varieties of beer including mango flavored, choco pies, ginseng, essence of chicken, essence of clam with ginseng, many varieties of coffee, squid flavored fish floss, briefs, t-shirts, a raincoat, face masks and a plastic canister you can get for free if you save up enough 7-11 stickers in a month. These are true friends who can present you with such a bounty.