Can't Hardly Wait

My wife, Sigrid, has her wedding anniversary this Saturday. Technically, it's mine as well though I usually defer for a couple of days to allow the marching bands, the balloons, and the floats to clear out from in front of the house (so the prize patrol van has enough room to park because this is my year to win).  

I'm kidding, of course. I celebrate our wedding anniversary whenever she tells me I can. You're not married as long as she and I are and not have a few rules to live by. In our next lives, I'm hoping it's my turn to have a few as well.  

It's our fortieth anniversary which makes me smile even as I type that because I find the length and strength of our relationship, when I look at those I've known and at those around me, be it at work or home, to be pretty amazing. 

Sigrid is admittedly a bit more tempered in her enthusiasm, observing that it feels like a lot longer than forty years. I'm pretty sure she says that because the Germans use the metric system though I'm not sure just how many hectares are in a German year. I was just told it's square hectares. Okay.

Of course, I want to do something special. I am, after all, the eldest son of a man who once bought his wife (my mother) a vacuum cleaner for her birthday, and not just any plain old vacuum cleaner but the roll-around pull-it-behind-you with the hose type. Yep. The apple certainly doesn't fall far from the tree. 

I've been racking my brain to find the perfect present that says, of-all-the-people-in-the-world-you-love-me-and-if-could-choose-anyone-to-marry-I'd-choose-you-all-over-again. When I opened our local paper Wednesday morning, it jumped right out at me. 

Stunning, innit? Just sort of screams "I LOVE YOU!"  What? Oh, it's a butter cutter. I know, now you wish you'd thought of it, right? And since we're on the East Coast I can skip that whole ordering the multi-size butter cutter stuff, as we don't have the dairy diversity that I guess the folks on The Other Coast have.

Second time in my life I've known the meaning of love at first sight (don't tell Sigrid, okay?). And what clinched it for me was this dynamic short video, very nearly professionally produced. When Mr. Announcing Guy shared "It can be used with one hand or two, depending on your strength and the hardness of the butter," my heart was like a brick of Kerrygold and melted into a little puddle just above my belt. (Did you notice the variety of colors? So many choices!)

I can't wait to see Sigrid's reaction. I've already made up the pull-out sofa we keep in the garage for managing marital misunderstandings but I think I may still need to fill out a change of address form. Certainly hope it's a bright, sunny day; it'll help me explain the dark glasses. 
-bill kenny