Celebrating Clint: 43rd Year Edition

A lot of good things happened in 1976: Steve Jobs formed Apple Computer, Nadia Comaneci won three Olympic gold medals, the movie Rocky premiered, ABBA hit number one on the charts with their song Dancing Queen...and Clint Stancil made his entry into the world. Sunday marked 43 years since that auspicious occasion, so naturally, we spent the weekend celebrating.

Last year, hurricane Florence decided to elbow her way into our birthday plans, and we spent most of Clint's special day without power. With that fiasco in mind, and after just moving into a new house, it's not surprising that the birthday fellow asked--okay, begged--to keep things relaxed and low key this go 'round. He's a man of simple tastes, and all it really takes to create a celebration is good food, good drink, and maybe a jaw-droppingly large flat screen television.

We began with the purchase of his main gift, the TV. After spending an evening in Best Buy surveying our options, we settled on a television just slightly smaller than a movie theater screen. I'm kidding (sort of), but he did choose a 65-inch wide screen...which is kind of amazing when I ponder the fact that I am only 64-inches tall, in all my statuesque glory. The Geek Squad came Saturday morning to install that beast, and suddenly we are seeing our shows in a whole new way (as my friend John pointed out, watching Days of Our Lives at lunch every day now feels like being on set).

As he keeps reminding me, there was still space for an even larger TV,
so this one was a "compromise." 

Around midday, I pulled the birthday boy away from his new electronics and we headed out for a festive early birthday brunch at The Crunkleton here in Charlotte. The food was amazing, and thank goodness there are no calories in birthday treats, because we ate to our hearts' content. The Crunkleton also has an extensive list of creative cocktails, so after we finished our meal, we sat and sipped the afternoon away. We haven't had a half hour of unscheduled time in the last few weeks, so a little downtime was a gift for both of us! Anxious to get back home to watch more of that TV, we spent Saturday night cheering on the Clemson Tigers and relishing a little relaxation for a change.

Birthday brunching.

Our first dish was the fried chicken biscuit with pimento cheese topped with an egg.
And that square of deliciousness? Baked cheese grits. Pure bliss.

This one is "eggs in purgatory;" poached eggs in a spicy tomato saffron broth with avocado crema and grilled bread. The name says purgatory, but it was heaven!

And this. This is probably the best Bloody Mary I have ever had.
Cheers to 43, Clint!

And of course, there was cake.
Clint's a fan of the classics, so he requested a Dairy Queen Heath Bar Blizzard cake.

On Sunday, or National Clint Day as I like to call it, the man of the hour wanted to sleep in (thank heaven for it, because the Stancils are tired, y'all). We made a birthday trip to McDonald's to grab a celebratory breakfast and stayed in our pajamas until lunch. I hope that means this next year will be one of leisure, but knowing us, I'm not counting on it. After lunch and the afternoon of futzing with stereo audio equipment and surround sound capabilities (yawn, but it was his birthday), it was time to open gifts. Now, that billboard size television was obviously the majority of Clint's present, but I did pick up a couple of surprises for him as well. The first time we came to see the house that we now own, the stagers had a coffee table book in plain view that we saw as soon as we walked through the front door, interestingly enough, titled "Clint." It happens to be about Clint Eastwood, but we thought it was so appropriate and clearly a God wink, that Clint Stancil fiercely wanted to own a copy of that book for himself. Ask, and ye shall receive. Pair that with a new Ric Flair t-shirt, and you are on your way to a prosperous 43rd trip around the sun, am I right?

Just a couple of quintessentially Clint birthday gifts.

We capped off the day with dinner at our favorite spot, Paco's Tacos & Tequila. If there is a better way to commemorate a birthday than tacos, chips, and salsa, I don't want to hear about it. We were stuffed after our meal, but our waitress surprised Clint with a huge piece of Paco's dulce de leche cake. It would have been rude not to eat (all of) it, so we dutifully wolfed down every single bite.

A little birthday fiesta at Paco's Tacos.

Much like Clint, it was a quiet, laid back weekend. I think it gave the birthday guy a much needed chance to relax and recharge, and hopefully made him feel appreciated and celebrated. 

Happy birthday to Clint, may your year be as large and commanding as your new TV!