Or "A Belated Birthday Gift For My Husband, Which I Finally Managed to Finish, Albeit A Couple of Weeks After the Fact."
Some notes:
My husband Andy is 15 years older than I am, which occasioned some comment when we were dating, and when we got engaged. Most of it was lighthearted in nature -- well, except for my mother, but seeing as how her first comment when I told her we'd gotten engaged was "I thought you were going to do something with your life," any further discussion was bound to go downhill from there.
In the months leading up to our wedding, Andy & I took dancing lessons so we wouldn't look like complete clods during the wedding reception. At one point, our instructor told us that if we came up with a song, she'd help us put together a choreographed dance for our first dance. I don't remember if I was being serious or sarcastic when I suggested "When I'm Sixty-Four" --maybe as a kind of retort to people who'd joked about the difference in our ages? -- but Andy liked it, and the dance instructor and Andy pointed out that many, if not most, Beatles songs are foxtrots.
So, for our first dance at the reception, we had a fancy routine all worked up. (I can still remember practicing in the big living room of our first apartment, after we'd rented it but before we'd moved all our stuff in.)
I also remember thinking at the time, "hmmm, I'm going to have do something special for Andy's 64th birthday as a kind of 'in-joke.'"
So, here we are. Happy birthday to my husband Andy. He's the best.
Notes:
*The panels above feature cameos by our pets, those still with us, and those which have moved on to another plane of existence.
*Pottermore.com sorted both of us into Hufflepuff; ergo, that's a Hufflepuff initial sweater I'm knitting for Andy, à la Mrs. Weasley's Gryffindor sweaters for her kids -- though this drawing is clearly set in the alternate universe where I can, you know, actually knit.
*We tend to have trouble keeping our side mirrors attached to the car. Things keep running into them.
*We really do have a weeping cherry tree in our front yard. Dandelions, too.
*Lego does not, as far as I know, actually make a "Frank Lloyd Wright in Spaaaaaaace" set, but it would be darn awesome if they did.
*The postcard Andy is holding reads "Why do melons get married?" The answer, of course, is "Because they cantaloupe." I have told Andy this joke at least once a week for the last 23-1/2 years, usually upon the occasion of him bringing cantaloupe home from the market. Despite this, we are still married. There was an early 20th century vogue for romantically-themed postcards with incredibly bad jokes, so I borrowed the tradition since I didn't have to dig too hard for a terrible joke.
