Today's letter is " X ." Last week , I told you that the husband and I decided to have some fun with the x mas presents for each other.  E x aggerating the use of the mathematical terms, it went like this: $10.00 = total e x pense we each would spend x ≥ 5 presents (In other words, 5 or more gifts) How did we do? E x cellently!  X -wise, we found that x = Si x e x ceptional gifts! We shopped downtown, going in opposite directions. Amazingly, we each finished before the time allowed: 60 minutes – x minutes = 45 minutes My e x penses: $9.95.  At the thrift store, I found a Michael Crichton novel and a booklet about Oregon caves, which was published in the era when the husband worked there during the summers of his college days. Because the husband is a visual artist, I purchased water colors and a couple of brushes at the art supply store. ( Hint, hint, the husband. ) At our favorite drugstore, I bought Post-it notes for his note-taking and a box of Milk Duds for the ne

Later today, the husband and I will be off on our twelfth 23rd date. I admit that I'm impressed that we did honor last year's Christmas gift to each other.  Every 23rd of the month, we dropped everything and took off for an afternoon or a whole day. We drove back roads we've always wanted to explore. We hiked unfamiliar parks, strolled along beaches, and wandered in nearby cities. When it rained, we took ourselves to movies and, on one occasion, to the Egyptian museum. I wrote about some of our adventures, which you can find here , if you're interested. Our final 23rd date of the year will be a shopping adventure. Yep, shopping. The activity the husband probably dislikes to do the most. But, it is time for us to do some Christmas shopping for each other, so why not on our 23rd date. To make it fun, we made a few rules. We can only spend $10. Uh-huh, ten bucks, including taxes. We must purchase at least 5 items for each other. No handmade items allowed.  Handmade coupons

Fourteen years ago, about the same time as I'm writing this, I'm getting food ready for the next day's festivity. Getting married to the husband, it was. Fourteen years ago, about an hour or so from now, I will have finally laid down beside a very anxious husband-to-be. He would be so anxious, he would not be able to sleep. And, that would mean I would not get to sleep. "We can still call it off," I will have said. "No, we can't," he will have replied. "Yes, we can." "No, we can't. People are coming." "We can call them up first thing in the morning." "No, we can't." "Yes, we can." "You've already made the food." "I can put it in the freezer." "We don't have to get married," I will have said. "We already got the license," he will have replied. "Do you want to marry me?" "Yes, I do." "What's the problem?" "You

For our last 23rd date , the husband and I decided to go see a movie.  For once, our local theater was showing several that we wanted to see: Inception , Deception , Nanny McPhee Returns , and The Other Guys . Ah, choices. We decided to go with something light, silly, and fun. So, off we went to see the The Other Guys .  All we knew was that it was a farce about cop movies. But we were assured (well maybe the husband was more than me) that anything with Will Ferrell ought to be decently hilarious. We weren't wrong. There were several scenes that had us laughing out loud and long. I ask you, have you ever seen a movie with cops driving a red Prius in a car chase? Ferrell and Wahlberg play two NYPD detectives, who mostly do paperwork. Ferrell's character, Allen Gamble, is happy about it, while Wahlberg's character, Terry Hoitz is furiously not. They are made fun of by the other detectives for not having done any heavy-shooting, car chasing detective work. Terry wants to know

Were you wondering what the husband and I finally did on our 23rd date last Friday ? Yes or no, I'm here to tell you. Well, actually to show you some photos of different things we saw as we stopped here and there. Wild chickens are continually crossing the streets in San Juan Bautista. Here's a bee that knows a good thing when it sees it! Taggers will leave their marks on anything standing! Can you see the turtle and the chimpanzee sitting on it? In a fancy boot store in Carmel-by-the-Sea, I peeked at the price tag of a pair of cute ankle cowboy boots. Over $1,000! And, they were not as elaborate as these. I didn't even want to know how much they were. Are those golf balls edible? Probably. Up close, they looked real enough not to eat! Cute handbags. Do you think that arm belongs to the bag or an actual human being? How to describe downtown Carmel-by-the-Sea? Drink and eat, see, shop. Or, coffee house, art gallery, boutique. This is the tallest and hunkiest eucalyptus tree

Our 23rd dates seem to come too soon. Not that I'm complaining, I love getting away for the day with the husband. It's just that I have yet to accomplish things on my to-do list that have been there since mumble, mumble . As I'm writing this, the husband and I have yet to decide where to go and what to do. Hiking is out this time because I'm supposed to let my ankle rest. According to the doctor, I have a chronic ankle sprain. I have no idea when I even sprained it. All I know is that since we walked up that mountain in May, I was wrapping it up whenever it hurt to walk on it. When I finally couldn't put pressure on the foot, I decided to go see the doctor. That only took, uhm, two months to give in. "Doctor, Doctor, it hurts when I do this," said the patient. "Then don't do that," advised the doctor. That joke cracks me up every time. My doctor felt up the ankle, gave me a prescription for anti- inflammatory medication, and said, "Don&#

It's summer! The time to hang out with friends and wander aimlessly. The husband and I did just that on our first summer 23rd date . Our friend Kathy guided us up wooded paths to a lake where I saw my first red dragon flies and heard my first bullfrogs. On the way to and from it, we came upon jack rabbits, deer, bugs, yellow-tail butterflies, a slow-going garter snake, and much, much more. What a glorious and, yes, joyous, day! We were walking a path that used to be part of the Wells Fargo route between San Jose and the Pacific Coast. Can't you just see a Well Fargo wagon bumpity bumping down the road? "Dandelions! I rarely see dandelions," I exclaimed. "What do you mean?" the husband replied. "They're growing on our front lawn."  "Not like these," I said. The golden hills of California. We stood and watched this snake slowly make its way across the graveled path to the lawn. We wondered if it had just eaten because its middle part lo

This is how the husband's and my fifth 23rd date started: We sipped coffee and ate chocolate doughnuts. This is how our date ended: We sipped coffee and ate chocolate cake. In between: We went downtown to watch the Portuguese Festival Parade march up and then down. Caffeine and a parade on a Sunday morning. I didn't know I would love that combo. For more photos, click here . We drove over to the Great San Juan Bautista 2010 Rib Cookoff. Lesson I learned. Do not go to the rib vendor that has barely a line. Oh well, sitting on the curb and bobbing along to the rock and roll music of the Sound Bytes made the sandwich I ate taste better. The husband stood patiently as I went nuts taking shots of fences around town. We got back in the car and drove the back roads for awhile. See those brown specks. Those are happy bees minding their own buzzness. We drove up a mountain, then down it, only to get out of the car to start walking back up it. But only for a bit. Enough of a bit to se

Last Friday was the husband's and my fourth "23rd" date this year. Recap: Last Christmas, the husband and I gave ourselves a day each month to run away from everything.  We don't do much planning for the date other then determine our destination point the night before so we can tell the mama. We get up the next morning and take off. It's nice being spontaneous at least once a month. I  feel like we're courting each other again on these 23rd dates. This month's destination was Año Nuevo State Reserve on the coast to see the elephant seals. It's about 20 miles north of Santa Cruz. Since the 1970s, elephant seals go the  reserve's shore every winter to give birth to their babies. Once the cutie-pies are weaned, the adults swim off leaving the kids which wait until they have strength to take off. During the spring and summer, the elephant seals come back to Año Nuevo to molt. Last Friday, we saw both pups and molting adults laying about on the beache

Tomorrow is our third "23rd" adventure. We're talking about heading to the Pinnacles National Monument to hike, to gaze at wildflowers, and, maybe, to see a condor. These "23rd" outings are the Christmas gifts the husband and I decided to give ourselves last year. Every 23rd of the month, no matter how busy and preoccupied we are, we take off for the day. Just him and me. In January, we took a long, meandering way to the beach. Here's the link , if you'd like to read about the day. Teaser: We got stopped by the coppers. In February, the husband and I decided to go to the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose. It was a perfect rainy day to be inside checking out ancient relics from a dry region far far away.  The museum looks small but don't let that fool you. It has four galleries full of artifacts. Most were authentic, the rest replicas.   Let's say I was not underwhelmed. We got there in the early afternoon so we had to rush through the last