Whirlwind Anniversary

Six years!

Kathy & I celebrated our sixth anniversary on Sunday, and we had a bit of a whirlwind weekend to do it in.

On Friday night, we went out to dinner at Wild Rice, a Vietnamese restaurant in Metuchen that we discovered with some friends the week before.

Saturday, we lollygagged for a bit longer than we planned to, then went for a short hike in the Wissahickon Gorge in Philly's Fairmount Park. It's a great place to walk -- lots of things to see -- and I was sorry we didn't have more time there.

But then we went to a dual birthday party at home of the King of Parties. A truly international event, with foods representing France (our contribution), Hungary, Thailand, China, and the Islands of Grilled Deliciousness. A couple guys from France were there, and a girl from Spain, an exchange student from Saudi Arabia, and for a while we were sitting with a Vietnamese guy who introduced himself to a credulous soul as Don Ho. Later on he said to Kathy and I, "I looked over, and I could tell that you guys knew I wasn't Don Ho, but you weren't saying anything." Never get in the way of a fake name -- especially when there's comedy involved.

Met some other good folks, too, and had a great conversation with AJ about monitoring people for house arrest.

Round midnight, we did some shots to celebrate Mike & Jeff's birthdays, and then we all did some more rounds for Kathy and my anniversary. Mike got a little mushy about it. He's a big softie.

We left to crash at my Mom's place around 3 a.m. The next morning, Kathy was off to my future sister-in-law's bridal shower, and I went back to Mike's solo to retrieve Kathy's hiking boots. The remaining partiers grabbed some beers and walked around the block to a first communion party, where there was more great food, delicious mojitos (that I only had a sip of, poor me) and a super soaker, to boot.

From there, I left for Mom's to pick up Kathy, dropping a new friend off at the airport on the way.

Spent a little time with Mom, Kathy and my brother Jim, then trekked on back to the NJ homestead.

At which point I sprang some gifts on the lady: House of the Dead: Overkill for the Wii, along with two gun shells for the Wii remotes. And a necklace, which I think looks mighty nice.

Anytime you want to tell someone how much they mean to you? Say it with zombies.

Rob