Sunday, December 2, 2012

Day 130: Surprise Duke !!!



I've said it before, but I'll repeat it again ...
one of the rewards of teaching is seeing former students.

Robert Tjan, Duke Olrich, David Alduenda, Bud Arbuckle, Margaret Rodriguez, Roy Center, Rick Anderton

These are some of my happy, crazy black belts .... back when?



This is us, serious!  Except Duke, he's always happy!


artwork done in 1997

A month ago I got an invitation from a man I didn't know.
Sounds exciting? Well it was for a surprise party for Duke.
Not just any party, but at Maggiano's!




Now I had never been to Maggiano's, but I had heard.







Oh, my goodness ...






You get the idea. Amazing!


And, after dinner, but before dessert, dancers!
Beautiful, skillful young ladies who entertained and
even brought Duke and friends up to join them. Fun!



I forgot to mention that the beautiful private 
dining room was decorated for the "surfer" 
with a palm tree at each of the ten tables. 
And a huge surfboard autographed for surfer Duke!



I try to keep my words to a minimum on this blog, 
but describing the 100+ friends who come to 
celebrate Duke will require more.
Father of Sandy, Grandfather of Ben, Sam and Eli, 
master surfer, successful business man, 
I have never seen a room filled with more people 
in love with one man. 
Many spoke words of praise and then came the cake!

Duke amazed ...




The perfect cake. The perfect evening.
A really great man.


6 comments:

Erin said...

How cool!! I love the cake!!! Good job Mom

jacki long said...

Thanks Erin, I like it when you like it! ;o)

Anonymous said...

what a cool cake...Love the story titles "To pee or not to pee" sounds like you had a good time.(ml)

Anonymous said...

Oh what did you have for dinner...
<3 their salmon.... (ml)

Anonymous said...

Oh what did you have for dinner...
<3 their salmon.... (ml)

jacki long said...

Thanks Monica, I hadn't noticed all of the captions in the cake, that's funny! I didn't have the salmon, but I did have the lasagna, chicken piccata, veal parmigano,
and more ... Oh my! ;oD