November 11th is National Sundae Day, a day to enjoy a delicious dessert featuring ice ream, syrup, and your favorite toppings. The sundae is a beloved dessert, and such a wonderful creation that many cities across the U.S. claim to have invented it. But it doesn’t matter where (or who) bore the first sundae — what’s certain is that the sweet dish has delighted diners since the late 1800s. Today, the term “sundae” has come to blanket a variety of ice cream desserts, including hot fudge sundaes, caramel sundaes, butterscotch sundaes, brownie sundaes, and the banana split. True sundae connoisseurs can even enjoy a $1,000 Serendipity Golden Opulence Sundae from Serendipity 3 restaurant in New York City, complete with Tahitian vanilla bean ice cream, edible 23-carat gold leaf, American Golden caviar, and Parisian candied fruits. That must be some sundae!

I’ve always liked the yummy simplicity of a good ice cream sundae. When I was growing up my family occasionally went through the McDonald’s drive-thru (fast food was a real rarity in the Lipinski household) just to grab a hot fudge sundae for each of us. For a brief spell we frequented Friendly’s, where I would fill up on a big plate of chicken fingers and follow it with a scintillating Reese’s Cup Sundae. Now that I’m an adult, I prefer the sundaes at Carl’s in Fredericksburg, or Maggie Moo’s if I want something elaborate and fun. But a sundae is usually a great treat no matter where it comes from — it’s pretty hard to screw up ice cream and syrup. Well — unless you forget the nuts!

Much of the country was on leave in celebration of Veteran’s Day today, but I decided to go into the office to earn some comp time for the Christmas holidays. I awoke in a good mood, knowing it would be a calm, quite day followed by a satisfying sundae dessert. And I was really looking forward to a sundae: I’ve barely had one or two since our August celebration of National Banana Split Day! At one point during the work day I even jumped the gun and tried to convince a couple of my co-workers to go out to pickup some sundaes, but they settled for a far less tantalizing packaged ice cream snack. I decided I would wait until after dinner and maybe even treat myself to a huge sundae from Maggie Moo’s. I guess I’d forgotten about the theory behind Chaos Never Dies Day because, as it turned out, my plans did not work out….