Today is Abby’s birthday. I hope to take her to dinner if she is feeling up to it, but if she’s not, I’ll do whatever she wants and needs. I’m still sort of shopping for gifts for her, since I don’t exactly know what to get her. Like my parents for the last 30 years of their lives, Abby has everything in triplicate, so it’s hard to shop for her. Maybe something shiny.

The first birthday of hers we shared was nine years ago. Wow. I still remember those days like they were yesterday. At one point early in our courtship, she bought a tube of Close-Up toothpaste for me to use when I was at her house, and only today did I finally decide it was used up, and threw it away.

“We’ve sure been through a lot together,” she told me a few days ago. And I would add that we both feel that we have gone through a lot of great times together. It has been a great marriage. Happy birthday, my love.