Check it.

Yeah, so scroll down to the bottom of my page and check out the marriage ticker thingie. 11 years, baby. Yes, there IS someone who is willing to put up with me. So there, Mom and Dad. Take that.

I have been married 11 years today to Wallsterham Lincoln. Aka: Wally. Aka: Sanford. Aka: Dude. Aka: Dammit, Wally! I don't usually use real names. I guess I got that from my Grandpa Gator. Hey, there is proof. I called him "Grandpa Gator" almost my whole life. His name wasn't "Gator", by the way.

Anyhow, hooray for us for being married for 11 years, raising three great kids, not killing each other; or the kids, having several obese, happy dogs, and living in a house we own and having no debt. Good for us.

I am busily planning our vow renewal in Rome for our 20th. Come if you wish, don't come if you don't wish. It will be the BEST thing EVER. I am trying to figure out how to get a Mariachi band over there, though. And the drunken dancing Mexican dudes. I gotta keep them sober and keep their livers healthy at least long enough for them to come dance at my vow renewal. I am also trying to figure out how to trick Sanford into a side trip to my favorite city in the world: Paris. I must get back there. Hell, with any luck, we'll be living there at that time and it won't be an issue.

But, for tonight, it's the Melting Pot, and we gave each other gifts already. I gave him a Southern bottle tree. It's fairly awesome. He gave me a box with a quote from Ernest Hemingway about writers on it and some DVDs for my class with Bill Nye, since they had no idea who he was and when I showed them a video about Buoyancy from Bill Nye they all acted as if they were converts to a new religion. He also reframed one of our wedding photos. It's in a beautiful frame, now...and DAMN, I had HUGE boobs! Thank you Dr. Lee for relieving me of that particular pain in the ass.

I returned from Ft. Worth yesterday after the Texas Gifted and Talented Conference. it was a great experience, and I plan on going again next year. I couldn't get my gun out of the room safe, though, and had to call security to come help me. The stupid BATTERIES in the safe were dead. BATTERIES??? How safe could it be? I didn't want them to see what was in the safe, as I was afraid they'd freak and kill me, but then I realized the poor people at the McDonald's in Waco saw it in my purse when I pulled out my wallet to pay and all they did was get really quiet and take my money and back away from the counter. Sorry Waco McDonald's people. I'm not a criminal, I'm just protecting myself from criminals.

Which brings me to: MY LATEST OBSESSION! Steven Seagal. I've probably been obsessed with him before. But now I'm really obsessed. Obsessively obsessed, even. Watch his A & E show if you haven't seen it. It's so kick ass it will leave you speechless and determined to be so Zen you won't even be able to stand yourself. I'm going to practice my Zen shooting over Thanksgiving weekend at the range with Wally, the boys and my Dad. Too bad for the guys that I'm going, too. I will be a big party pooper to them, I'm sure, but I have to try the shooting method Steven Seagal uses. I will out-shoot them all, as usual, I'm sure.

I got nothing else, people. Except, if you find my sapphire and diamond tennis bracelet which fell off somewhere between my classroom and my hotel room in Ft. Worth on Tuesday afternoon, please let me know. It's one of the first things the kids gave me, and it's their birthstones.