Asking Her About Birthday Presents

"What do you want for your birthday?" I asked from the study.

"Dish towels!" she replied from the living room.

"Dish towels!?" (A long time ago I gave kitchen paraphernalia as a gift, a mistake that I vowed not to repeat.)

"I thought you were going to get me something so that I can listen to the TVs at the gym," she said.

"Well... I haven't said what I'm getting you one way or another. It was just an innocent question."

There was a momentary pause.

"Binoculars!" she shouted.

"Binoculars!?" I exclaimed with visions of mega-long, high-tech ones that I've only seen behind locked glass enclosures.

"I'm not sure this conversation is going in the right direction," I said.

She laughed loudly. I returned to reading about database sharding.

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Red Shirts

The socks I grabbed were some of the first running socks I bought way back when I rediscovered running. The shorts I grabbed were whatever was on the top of my pile. The shirt I grabbed was a red one from a race we ran last year.

I hesitated momentarily as I was about to pull the shirt off the hanger. Trudy was wearing her red shirt from the same race. We'd match exactly. Just a brief moment ... and then, yes. I put the shirt on.

When Trudy came in from outside, the dog came running into the bedroom to announce their return and tell me what a wonderful walk I missed. Trudy looked thru the doorway from the dining room.

"We match!" she said when she saw me, pointing to her red shirt. "Did you know?"

I smiled and nodded.

"You did!? Oh but that's every wife's dream come true!" she said with open arms.

Um, I turn 50 next month. If someone had just told me this earlier, things would have been so much easier!

12:05:55 AM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []