AUSTIN, Texas, May 20, 2005 — We have lots to celebrate, no doubt. Our anniversary and FFP retiring. It's tempered by this worry and that, of course. But we've always been meticulous about celebrating. Maybe it shows we appreciate and embrace our good life. Maybe it shows we are decadent. Even when something is wrong, for example when my mom was ill, we celebrated birthdays and such.

I wake up from my long and welcome sleep and know that if I want to exercise, even a little, I have to get on with it.

I let the dog out, call Dad, get coffee. FFP and I make the bed. And I go to the gym and ride the recumbent bike for forty minutes. I use the setting of '10' throughout. I usually do 9 for most of the ride with 10 at the end or for a few intervals. But I figure I won't have time for fifty minutes. (I have no idea how high this resistance setting will go.) I work up a good sweat and then rush off to get showered, dressed and off to take Dad to PT. Yesterday he used his seated walker and actually trimmed some branches off the walk to his curb. He managed to get the branches in a can and into the garage. After his session I ask him a couple of times if he wants to go anywhere else. Finally he says he'd like to go eat at IHOP. So I take him and we both have Senior breakfasts. (Hey, it's 55 and older but I wish they'd at least question me once in a while.) He enjoys it. I take him home and he gets in his easy chair and takes his shoes off. He has a bunch of rinsed dishes piled up on the counter so I load up the dishwasher and start it.

He says I've done my part and I go home. FFP is off lunching with someone. I go in and do some e-mail, order a wedding present for my dad for my cousin's daughter (online). I've already done one myself but he asked me to do it for him "since we aren't going to the wedding." (Note to self: be sure he knows taking presents to weddings isn't the best idea.) FFP comes home. I give him the anniversary present I got him (some DVDs of Frank Sinatra performances) and we discuss this and that.

I do some backups of our accounting stuff. Meanwhile, FFP is doing some stuff on his computer and we are both doing our usual 'now, how did I figure out how to make this work??' We use computers every day and we are always forgetting how to do things or the software changes or both. Such is life.

Jeffrey's. The site of much of our celebration in our married life. Also the site of many business anniversary celebrations and other concocted events. We have slipped in a reservation for three for six in the evening somehow. On a crazy graduation celebration night in Austin it's hard to get a reservation.

We go down to the funky Clarksville neighborhood and park. We order a cocktail and our bookkeeper joins us. We are celebrating years of FFP's business and his retirement. We pull out all the stops: nice bottle of wine, caviar (getting David to have them serve it with some of those blinis instead of the potato pancakes we think overwhelmes the fish eggs). I have a chilled avocado soup and a tenderloin with vegies and mashers. The Duckhorn Merlot is fantastic. A cheese plate finishes us off, shared between FFP and me while the bookkeeper goes for Chocolate Intemperance.

Home again we are soon to bed and to sleep fitfully. Perhaps it was the rich food and alchohol.