I have an awesome wife (who may read this)

 What do you get for the woman who has everything?

Or more importantly, what do I get for my wife? She certainly doesn't have everything, but I can't afford a winter house in Hawaii, and the whole hiding a horse in our garage thing didn't work out well at all.

Or even something like a horse.

 

I can't even get her another dog, because it turns out I'm allergic to them. Not as much as I'm allergic to cats, but these lungs are getting old.

I can't get her another car, even though in the long run they're less expensive than horses. That's usually not a problem with us, but with only one car we can't exactly split the shopping chores.

Maybe I should get a star named after her, like in the commercials. Oh, it might not be official, but what are the chances someone's going to go there and change the name anytime soon?

Emily and I have been married for so long that by now she knows I suck at little things like gift shopping, special event planning, romantic surprises, cooking, knowing where I left--anything, and a lot of other stuff. It helps that I do a bang-up job of washing dishes. In fact, I can load the dish drying rack with seven times its normal capacity, which gets me very close to a national record.

Playing Janga with dishes isn't very romantic, but no chore is perfect.

 

Emily was born on the shortest day of the year, as I've mentioned before, and that means something to me. From that moment, the days get longer. This time of year I go to work in the dark and get home in the dark, but spring will come again. Emily symbolizes my life getting brighter.

Which reminds me: I think last year, 2022, I promised her that 2023 would be better. Well, that didn't pan out, did it? I guess I have a lot of work to do in 2024.

No matter what I get her--and I do have something in mind--I know that she knows I love her, and that's something. In fact, I tell her that every day: "I love you! Don't go looking for someone better ... you'll probably find him".

 

I will never, never ask if she loves horses more than me.