Please RSVP, the surprise depends on it

For several reasons I need a good estimate of how many of you will be there. I have already heard there's at least one out of towner coming. Also a couple of other out of towners who can't make are sending an ecoficient gift (I guess a few slurpee's will have to be sacrificied to pay for the postage on that gift). So if you are planning on coming please post a comment at the end of this message. We only have one week left to pull this off and here's where I really need your help.

If you are coming or not I would like you to help me decide.

Should everyone already be at the restaurant and seated when I arrive with him, traditional surprise style.

Or

Should he be inside seated already then everyone comes in all at once (this will take some parking lot coordination, but could be very cool).

Where's the Party?

So here are the details. The celebration will be held at the following location:



Green (this is the restaurants name)
2240 N Scottsdale RdTempe, AZ 85281
telephone: (480)941-9003

it is located between McKellips and McDowell on the West side of Scottsdale Rd.

to view the menu go to www.greenvegetarian.com The restaurant style is counter service so people can order at there leisure. There will however be food to sample because I am using the regifting option as my economic source to buy food for free (I'll explain later).

*if you can not find it a landmark is the Salvation Army

We have reservations for 5pm, Saturday March 8th. I told them we're expecting 20 people so I hope twenty of you are planning on coming. Time to RSVP

Gifts

Gifts are an optional one but if you want to give a gift here are a few suggestions

1. Make something

2. Send an e-card

3. Offer him some assisstance with something

4. Call him on March 10th and say "Happy Birthday"

5. Send him a text

6. Re-gift - so let me explain this one a bit.

Back in the 90's the term regifting was coined on an episode of Jerry Seinfeld. It's becoming more popular now but by no means is it a new concept. Basically it is the act of giving away a gift that you've been given. There are rules though. You shouldn't regift half a box of candy, bubble bath that you have used once or a pre-worn shirt, washed or not. A few standard rules include:

- rewrap the gift
- you might not want to give the gift back to the original giver
- you probably shouldn't regift hand made items.
- If you have $1.23 left on a gift card use it towards a purchase instead of regifting the card.

For more details go to http://www.regiftable.com/

Does anyone else have ideas on ecoficient ways to give a gift.

Food

So several people have e-mailed me and suggested a pot luck. It looks like that's the number one idea for an ecoficient way to eat. Well I thought I would share with you all a cool way to cut down on stress, time and dollars. I guess you can call it the new "pot luck". Have you heard of co-op cooking?

There's two ways you can do this. For both styles you need a group of people. For idea #1 let's say there are 5 different families. Each family takes one night out of the week to cook and on that night the other four families pick up dinner from that families house. Basically it's homemade take out. For idea #2 those five families would get together on one day of the week, maybe Saturday, and each family/person would be responsible for cooking one main dish. When all the food is done, it's divided into refrigerator or freezer safe containers and everyone takes their portions for the week. In both examples what your left with is a work week worth of food in only one days work. If you want to read more about it here's a helpful website http://oamc.factspot.com/

My initial idea was to have each of you bring something to the celebration that could be traded with other people, sort of a third variation of co-op cooking. I thought, well that will take care of the party favors but that could also turn into a logistical nightmare so I'm scraping that plan. I do however find this to be a great idea so if you're so inclined find a few people to try it out with and see what you think. Idea #1 might be best with people who live close to you.

So what do we do about food? My thoughts are...let's eat out. Is anyone up for trying something new? I'll pick a place Mateo likes where people can order if they want or just come and hang out. Let's make it for March 8th. That means we have exactly one month from now. Have you ever had vegan food? Remember though, you can't spend anymore money than you normally would for that day. Check back in a day or so for more birthday challenge details. We still need to talk about GIFTS!!!