Happy Anniversary to Us (A little late)

You'd think that being out of school would give me more free time. This is, by and large, the case, but I am currently in what I like to call the rebuilding phase of my summer vacation. This is the period of time (about a week or so in length) where I finally get to all the little things that have fallen through the cracks during the work year. I've spent most of the day cleaning our bedroom, which was quite a task. I'd post a picture, but I'm not sure where Jennifer put the camera (finding that will be my next rebuilding task).

One of the things that Jennifer and I have been able to do is to celebrate our 7th anniversary. Some of you are aware of the little tradition that Jennifer and I have about this day, but I thought it might make good blog fodder. Most of you are at least passingly familiar with the tradition of buying themed gifts based on which anniversary you are having. If you aren't, Wikipedia has the breakdown of the tradition here. Well, when Jennifer and I prepared for our first anniversary, we really tried to follow this. The first year is supposed to be paper (we were in the dark about the whole modern interpretation at the time). The problem is that you can go in two ways with paper, neither of which really worked for us. We didn't want to go the cheapskate route (Cards, homemade "coupon books"), but we didn't have enough money to go the expensive route (plane tickets, concert tickets). After many weeks of soul searching, we broke down and had a conversation about our predicament, ultimately deciding to scrap the tradition and make our own themed anniversaries instead. Each year we sit down and decide what our theme will be. Here, then, is the list of our Wedding Anniversary Traditional Gifts (thus far):

1st - Pajamas. This sort of makes sense, since the first year you still have all of those hot and heavy romantic feelings for one another and are as likely as you will ever be to appreciate a "sexy" gift. Our first anniversary, Jennifer gave me black silk pajamas, and I gave her something skimpy that probably shouldn't be described. Not surprisingly, I don't think either of us have worn our respective gifts in the years since.

2nd- Videos. Nothing particularly romantic here, but it was an opportunity to prove that we "knew" one another. I gave Jennifer The Phantom Tollbooth and Donald Duck in Mathmagic land, and she gave me one of the seasons of The X-Files.

3rd- Sacrifice. If I remember correctly, this hit us during one of our many financially tight years, but it turned out pretty well. I agreed to go with Jennifer to her ten year high school reunion, and she went to see wrestling with me. She so got the better end of this year, since I was the only spouse at her event and thus got an eternity of boring stories about people I don't know, while there were plenty of wives that got dragged to the AA Center to see Hulk Hogan flex his muscles for two hours.

4th- Food. Okay, this was a little bit of a cop out for us, as we buy food for one another as often as we tell each other, "I love you". This one is kind of hazy for me, but if I remember right, Jennifer bought me a big bag of candy and I took her out to a romantic dinner.

5th- Special Event. This one was a lot of fun, as Jennifer and I stumbled into an advanced screening of the movie Serenity. The movie itself was beyond awesome, but it was also really good because we spent the day at the theater standing in line and talking with one another, rediscovering why we fell in love with one another.

6th- Power Tools. I swear by all that is holy that this was not my idea. Having recently bought the house, Jennifer had been secretly bugged by a hedge that was growing out of control in our backyard, so she asked for hedge trimmers. I in return got a dremel set that is far more advanced than I need for my purposes (customizing action figures). As a side note, I've not once seen Jennifer use the hedge trimmers in question, although I recently broke them out to trim the bush that was bugging Jennifer (does that count as part of the anniversary present?)

7th- Wish List. Amazon.com is a wonderful thing, especially the part that allows you to create a wish list of things that you want others to give you (If you are thinking about me as my birthday approaches, mine is located here) . Again, this was a bit of a cop out for us, but it netted me "40 Years of the Avengers" and "44 Years of Fantastic Four", two DVD-ROM's that together consist of 1085 comic books, scanned cover to cover. In return, Jennifer received a basketball, a couple of CD's, and a bunch of cookware. The girl's got some odd tastes.

Although we usually don't officially decide what the theme will be until sometime in mid to late May, I pressed Jennifer to think ahead and here are a few of the frontrunners for upcomming anniversaries.

8th- Education. Jennifer wants to take a cooking class (not that she needs it), so I will go with her to this class if she will go to a class with me. The problem is I can't for the life of me think of a class I want to take, much less one I would subject her to. Any ideas?

9th- Home Improvement. This is coming sooner or later, but we need some time to save money. We will be updating either our master bathroom or the kitchen, but the details of this are still up for debate.

10th- Vacation. I have talked more than a little about our Nags Head vacation, which was quite good, but Jennifer has been wanting to take a cruise for forever. I'm okay with that as long as it isn't to someplace ordinary (no offense, but Mexico has been done to death). Jennifer jokingly mentioned the Mediterranean, which would be neat, but expensive. Maybe Alaska? I don't know. Anyone have a good cruise they would recommend?

Alright everybody, that's all I've got. Take care of each other.