My Fortress of Solitude

I have been challenged by all5horizons to divulge how I proposed to my wife Mindy. So, for fun, and because all cliffhangers need to be resolved, I give you The proposal. ( Read more... )

My birthday is this weekend! My wife has something planned all day Saturday and something else planned on Sunday (my actual birthday).

Since we have been together we try to do something special. Hers was the first birthday we celebrated together, back in 1999, and I had some extra money at the time (due to a lot of overtime - sometimes, I miss being paid by the hour!). I planned a trip for us to San Diego and had her best friend and her family meet us at Sea World. The big surprise wasn't the trip - it was that I had scheduled her to do their Dolphin Interaction Program (DIP). However, it is very hard to surprise my wife. She tries to get hints out of you, or else she pumps you for info. Needless to say, it wasn't a surprise, but she loved it. She was in the water with a dolphin and got to touch it, hug it, work with it for about an hour. It was the best hundred bucks I had spent in a while.

So, this weekend is supposed to be pretty cool. She keeps asking me if I know what is going to happen and I don't. I think she wants me to pump her for info, but I want to be surprised. I already know she bought me 'Monster's Inc.' on DVD, and she is mad about it. Thing of it is, she bought it while I was in the store with her and she talked about it with her mom in front of me. I may be a guy, and sometimes I may be a little clueless about things, but I am a very good silent observer. Granted, I am not like 'Monk' on TV, but I have enough IQ points (159) to best Forrest Gump and George W. Bush (I suspect they are one in the same).

Yesterday was a mess! I had to go to the jewelry store to pick up my wife's wedding ring (her engagement ring and wedding band came apart). I was a few blocks away from another destination where I was supposed to pick up a cat tree for the recently neutered Spike, but my wife wanted me to go to a weight watchers meeting with her. Tried as I did, I could not convince her of the logic in my going to the meeting separately. She figured the other party who was meeting me could just as easily wait an extra hour.

Wrong!

I ended up going home, and the woman I was supposed to meet called me. It would be an inconvenience for her to wait. So if I wanted a free cat tree, I had to meet her there ASAP. So I drove back out there - in the SoCal rush hour traffic - and what would have normally taken ten minutes was forty five. But I got the cat tree. The price was right.

And I made it to the meeting with about fifteen minutes to spare - and lost three pounds! Woo Hoo!