Two decades!  On September 14, 1991 Rebecca and I got married in the back yard of our house in Livermore, California with about 50 people attending. We wore clothes made for us by a Renaissance Faire clothier; Doug Beason and Kristine Kathryn Rusch were “best people” (we even cut the wedding cake with Doug’s ceremonial Air Force sword).

As our twentieth anniversary approached, Rebecca and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how we wanted to celebrate and how we could make it special. We travel so much throughout the year that neither of us was inclined to take another trip, and we couldn’t think of anything we needed around the house. So we decided to make a list of things we’ve been wanting to do, and spent the week doing something special each day.

On Monday we went to see Captain America (the first movie we’ve seen together in a theater in at least two years), then dinner at a sushi restaurant we particularly like. Tuesday we signed up for a two-hour course on firearms and went to an indoor FBI-style shooting range; we’d never done anything like that before, and we both enjoyed it. Wednesday, our actual anniversary, we set up the fondue pot and had a romantic fondue dinner at home. Thursday we drove up to Denver to visit the enormous airport-sized IKEA store that recently opened there; we looked at the furniture, snacked on their signature Swedish meatballs, and bought two new file cabinets for the home office; afterward, we had a late lunch at Marie Callender’s, one of Rebecca’s comfort-food restaurants.

On Friday, we went to another movie on our list, Cowboys & Aliens, then out to dinner at a local microbrewery restaurant (my choice!). Saturday’s activity might not sound like a lot of fun, but we spent the afternoon rearranging the three offices in our house, filing, organizing, putting things away that had been piling up for months; liberating in its own way, and it did give us a good sense of accomplishment. And finally, Sunday, we saw a third movie on our list, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, then had dinner at our favorite wood-fired pizza place Il Vicino (which also has its own micr0brewery…fresh pizza and fresh beer, you can’t beat that).

This week both of us worked to catch up on writing and editing our various projects, but each week is still special. We spend more time together than most couples (have even written 34 books together!) Happy anniversary, my love!