Valuable Vacation

Okay I'm back and the poor blog has been suffering for the last week or so. My apologies to all of you who can't make it through the day without reading my blog. So where did I go? What did I do?

I can answer both of those questions. I went to the redneck riviera. I don't call it that of course, but that's the rather course nickname the Destin-Ft. Walton Beach area has earned over the years. We stayed in a really nice condo on the beach and spent a lot of time in the sand. I have this love affair with the ocean. So each night, even though it was humid and hot, the sliding glass doors that led to our patio were open so we could hear the crashing waves as we gradually fell asleep.

Some nights I would wake up and just go stand and watch the reflection of the moon on the waves. I would think about how lucky I was to have a vacation where the only thing scheduled was relaxation. One night Kate and I returned from an evening out and at 1 a.m. we walked down to the beach during high tide and walked around in the water.

This love affair with the water stems from my childhood, when my father would reserve a place on the beach in Malibu. The whole family would invade the home and stay for a week or so. I still have fond memories of my time there.

Normally the kids would come along on a family vacation, but not this time. Kate and I were celebrating our 25Th wedding anniversary.

I'm a typical guy so I really struggle to come up with gifts for anniversaries. But if you don't have a good gift for the 25Th then there is something wrong with you. So I went on line to see what you are supposed to get for the 25Th. It's the silver anniversary by the way. So you are supposed to buy something silver.

I don't know who came up with these ideas of what to give each year. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a guy. If a guy created the list it would look something like this. This is just a list of the really important anniversaries of course.


First anniversary--tickets to a Lakers game

Five year anniversary--HDTV big screen--the bigger the screen the better

Ten year anniversary--More tickets to the Lakers

25 year anniversary---It's time for another big screen TV, Laker tickets and perhaps a Cuban cigar


For good measure in off years the gifts could me more tailored to the Mrs.. You know like a washing machine, new ironing board, stuff like that. Actually when the anniversary was approaching I mentioned to Andrea and Kim that I was thinking of getting something really big for Kate, something like a washing machine. It created the desired affect, as both of them looked stricken. Of course I was kidding.

So I finally settled on a great gift. A few years back Kate and I went shopping for a new ring. We were pretty poor when we started out 25 years ago. So the ring I gave her wasn't the greatest. So finally we had some extra money and we picked out a nice new one. But then a year or two years ago she managed to dislodge the diamond. It was gone. Ever since the ring has been stored away. She has been too angry about losing the diamond to get a new one. So on our anniversary night I produced the ring with a new larger rock. She was surprised and elated. I'll update you on more of the vacation as the week progresses. Tomorrow I'll introduce you to Gator!

You get the idea. So I'm sitting here thinking what little jewelry trinket could I get for Kate that has silver in it? It seems like this should be something simple, but no way, this is a big time problem. Kate is a jewelry aficionado, so she knows gram weight and everything you would want to know about this. Guys can tell you about Nolan Ryan's era from 1983, women can't because they use that same part of the brain to recite gram weight and that other stuff that women care about. I'm off point, let me get back to another concern. Price! Women can tell you exactly how much they spent on this or that, It's always a bargain. So when I buy jewelry, she's always asking me, "How much did you spend?" If I spend too much I'll hear about it.

So you see I have a steep hill to climb. But I made it. I had a brainstorm, and I got the job done.