FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

June 16th of this very year will mark Sarah's and my ten year anniversary. I know! Ten years! A whole decade! That's a significant milestone, and one worthy of special celebration. Some of you might remember that we had decided to celebrate in grand fashion with a trip abroad. We looked at all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean. We looked at Italy, including Bari, the final resting place of Saint Nicholas (sorry kids, he's dead). In addition to its connection to the late Mr. Claus, Bari is also noteworthy as the old world city from which the Fusanos embarked for the New World. We also looked into Venice as well as Mediterranean cruises. But the place where our imagination finally came to rest was the East African island of Pemba. Not only is it the sort of out-of-the-way, exotic destination adventure we had in mind but our friends, Reid and sandy Arensen, live there as well. That's like having a couple native guides around who speak perfect english. Plus, we love the Arensens, and we would be excited to see firsthand what they have been up to. But as we dug deeper into the details and laid out all of the expenses it became clear that even with generous help from Uncle Sam and you (You know who you are!) we were either going to come up short or it would be very tight. Uncomfortbaly tight.We're close though. So instead of abandoning the idea entirely, and blowing our dough on a lesser adventure, we have put the money away in a special account with plans to save our money and go to Pemba, Lord willing, in 2012. We think it's worth the wait. We'll use some of it though this year to go on a cruise to Mexico or something. We'll see. Nothing as dramatic as what we had orginally planned for the big tenth anniversary, but it'll still be awesome, cause being married to Sarah is awesome, and being able to getaway at all is amazing given our humble financial position. We have a lot to be thankful for. And we are thankful!

In planning for this hypothetical trip abroad, Sarah and I both came across our old, defunct passports from the 90's. Sarah's was issued in '95, she was 17, and mine was issued the following year in '96, I was 18, and it was just months before we started dating. Both passports were obtained in advance of a trip to Europe.

First of all, it looks like if the young man in the picture to the left opened his mouth Russian might come out. I look Russian in this photo, no? Maybe Polish? Definitely slavic. My ancestry is predominantly of the Anglo-Saxon variety, but you wouldn't know it from looking at this photo. And what is going on with my hair? Get thee to a barbershop! Stat! Didn't I know they would be photographing me? Sarah was charitable to take me on as her boyfriend. That's all I have to say about that.

Sarah, who is brown as a nut and smoking hot in her picture, also looks like a foreigner, but perhaps from somewhere along the Mediterranean coast. How did these two foreign kids meet and fall in love in America?
Then I made the two pictures kiss.