I typically don’t post much in the way of personal stuff here on my tech blog, but I had to take a moment to wish my beloved wife “Ammie” Happy Anniversary! Eleven years ago today my best friend and I walked down the aisle, which was an adventure in and of itself. Here’s a hint for all you guys out there: if you are going to get baptized together the day before the ceremony, make sure your bride to be’s ex-boyfriend isn’t in charge of filling up the baptistery!
My wife always wanted to have a baptism ceremony with her groom, so the day before they wedding we got baptized together. Let me set the scene for you. It’s December, and even though we live in the sunny south it was still COLD that day. As in 33 degrees Fahrenheit for the high. Oh, and winds from the north at 15 miles per hour, which made the wind chill factor “way on down there” as we say.
Seems my wife’s ex thought it might be a good idea not to fill the thing ahead of time and let it get to room temp. Oh no, he thought we needed the water good and fresh. Fresh from the icy cold well they used to fill it. And did I mention it seems that just coincidentally the heater for the water wasn’t working that day?
So when the pastor, my bride and I got into the water, little icebergs were floating all around us. And then just as the pastor is about start the dunking “Brother Bill” who was on stage, got a little befuddled about his part. He was supposed to give a little talk after our dunking, but got confused and started on his fifteen minute monologue while we were still standing in the frozen pond they called a baptistery.
Someone finally drug Brother Bill off stage and we got on with the dunking. More fun followed, it seems when you exited the pool, the door led outside. Yes, you read that right, outside. It seems the building designer didn’t want wet robes dripping on the carpet, and thus in bare feet and dripping wet robes we walked down the long side of the church, then back around the front and back in to the bathrooms.
The fun didn’t end there though, we still had the ceremony to get through. At the end of each pew were candles and garland. My wife had a long veil on her gown. Can you guess where this is going? About half way down I saw a little flare up as the thing began to smolder. Fortunately just as quickly I saw a pair of hands, I still have no idea who it was, reach out and snuff it out. Fortunately the happy bride was blissfully unaware as she continued her march.
Disaster was almost repeated during the candle ceremony on stage, you know the one where we take two candles and light one in the middle then blow ours out? This time I was on hand, she was so excited she brought her candle right to her face forgetting her veil, I had to stop her before the open flame reached it.
I had my brain dead moment of glory as well. We were rushed through our ceremony, photos, reception, and by the time we left we were both starving. We stopped at a drive through window, and my new wife asked me to get some cold meds out of the back. Yes, the cold dunking in the baptistery had left her sick! Well I was so excited I sat my 32 ounce cup of ice tea on the dash in front of her, then jumped out. I have a stick shift. Guess what I didn’t do?
Yup, take it out of gear. I stalled it out and large cup of tea went floop right in her lap. Icy cold again!
It all turned out well though. Eleven long years, two kids and a mortgage later we are still happily married and going strong. I have to give a lot of credit to my long suffering wife for putting up with me, listening to my ramblings about the .Net framework or some SQL function, and staring at the back of my head while I worked on blog posts or learned some new tech.
Happy Anniversary Ammie! Love ya babe!
Arcane Code 