65th Wedding Annviersary

Today I went to my girlfriend Katrien's grandparents' house because yesterday was their 65th wedding anniversary.  65 years.  (*Pause to think about that.*)  And they, being adorable people, and Belgium, being an adorable country, hosted the town mayor who presented them with a letter from the king recognizing and blessing their marriage, a copy of their original marriage certificate from the town records, a box of local cookies, and a medal.  A medal!  And a box of cookies!  It was awesome.

Allow me to reiterate, her grandparents are adorable.  In fact, they deserve a certificate from The World and a trophy for being the Two Cutest People on the Planet.  Here's a picture Katrien took of them today, with their medal and cookies.

A dozen other family members came for the occasion too, and I spent the afternoon entertained by their stories and jokes, despite not understanding a word of it.  It's amazing how you can ride the ebb and flow of conversation without actually being party to it.

Then a good dinner, and now a glass of wine, good book, and bowl of straciatella ice cream at my side and I sing from the rooftop that Life Is Good.

And in the spirit of randomness, my judgement clouded by straciatella, here is a poem I scribbled in the margin of my sudoku book last night while reading.

Kings
Where have all the kings gone?
Any vestigial individuals walking around today,
Poking at their own irrelevance with scepters stamped Made In China
Are only clowns,
Understudies to a deck of cards,
Bicycle
Kings don't ride bicycles
Arthur rode no bicycles.
Arthurian, a man so great his name became an adjective.
But now it's an Orwellian world
Kafkaesque
And perhaps McCarthyist
And cynicism is a tide with no ebb.
And then my girlfriend says
"I don't know if I want to read an entire article about scrapbooking"
and it's all the royalty I need.