Husband Shells Out For Valentine's Gift

POTSDAM - When Potsdam businessman Tom M. DeRosa hatched an idea to give wife Liz a four-pound ostrich egg for Valentine's Day he never thought his plan would go afoul.

But Mr. DeRosa found himself scrambling this week when the cantaloupe-sized surprise he'd ordered for his sweetheart came in the mail earlier than expected.

"We couldn't hide it in the fridge without her finding it, and we were afraid it might go bad if we waited another week," Mr. DeRosa said.

With years of marriage experience under his belt, Mr. DeRosa knew he couldn't just stick his head in the sand and ignore his dilemma. So he decided to be honest with his wife about the mix-up and hand over her present a week early - even if it did mean getting a little egg on his face.

He said his wife cracked up when she saw her gift.

"Nobody gives better presents than I do and she knows that," Mr. DeRosa said.

Mr. DeRosa, who owns First Crush Bistro on Market Street, ordered the ostrich egg from a ranch in California and said the cost of the egg itself, plus shipping from coast to coast, came to about $62.

He said he decided on an ostrich egg for his wife this Valentine's Day because for more than a decade he's been lavishing her with flowers, European chocolates and swanky silk pajamas.

"I thought it would be something different. But I don't know what I will have to do next year in order to top this," he said.

Mr. DeRosa and his family ate the egg at his Chestnut Street home with neighbors. He said a SUNY Potsdam professor who lives next door helped him drill small holes in each end of the egg in order to blow the contents into a large mixing bowl.

He said one ostrich egg is equal to a dozen large chicken eggs.

"We scrambled it with bacon and it was delicious. Much creamier than a regular chicken egg," Mr. DeRosa said. "It's something that we will definitely be ordering and doing again."

He said the experience was good enough that he might even consider offering an ostrich egg special at his downtown restaurant at 32 Market Street at some point in the future.