River: Remembering the FlowerCat: 48

Forty-eight years ago today, Colleen and I exchanged wedding vows and rings at the altar of University Lutheran Church in Palo Alto, next to the Stanford campus. Neither of us was a Lutheran, but we had been going to the singles dinner at the church for several years, so it was an obvious choice of venue. We catered the reception ourselves; it included a side of smoked salmon, mini-bagels, and a barrel of home-made pickled mushrooms.

My parents didn't think it would last, but we stayed together "in sickness and in health,..." until her death finally parted us on July 12, 2021.

Toast: To Colleen

"Just an empty glass, Mike," the Mandelbear says as he puts a dollar bill on the bar. "I brought my own bottle. This is the last of the case of The Glenlivet that Colleen's uncle and oldest cousin gave us for our twenty-fifth anniversary. This is our 48th."

He peers at the bottle, then pours what little is left in it into the glass. "Damned if I know what I'll use next year," he says, as he puts the bottle down on the bar and walks up to the chalk line.

"To Colleen!" he says, maybe a little too loudly, then drains the glass and flings it into the fireplace, where it shatters with a satisfying *CRASH*.