For my lover.

Jared getting some love from Donald on his birthday.

I am a day late on this, but hopefully not a dollar short... You see, my lover had a birthday yesterday and I have yet to honor him on the www. I would now like to celebrate the occasion, in a fashionably late sort of way, by telling you all how rad he is. To prevent myself from writing a novel, I will give you a little list:

• My lover is an incredible athlete. He has completed 5 marathons so far -- St. George, Boston, Baghdad (yes, Baghdad), New York and the Marine Corps marathon in DC. His fastest time was 2 hours 54 minutes (in the St. George marathon). For those of you who don't follow marathoning, that's really, really fast. He is currently training for the Carlsbad marathon, and I am excited to see him rock the pavement in a few months.
• In 1992 my lover took a girl named Cherry to his Junior Prom. He sported some pervy brown tinted eyeglasses to the event. It does not get much radder than that, in my humble opinion.
• My lover is super smart -- Georgetown Law educated and fluent in Russian, the language of love. He is also a smart ass.
• My lover is a hero. He served his country for many years in the National Guard, spending one of those years deployed in Iraq.
• My lover is an all around good guy. He helps people in need, he always stands up for what is right, he is ever thankful and he never expects any praise for his good deeds.
• My lover goes to great lengths to make sure that Piper and I are well taken care of.
• My lover is truly funny and he can sing and dance like no other, but will rarely do so in public.
• My lover probably should have married someone more accomplished than me. I am, however, very glad that he lowered his standards for a silly blonde girl with a long-lost passion for short shorts.

I know, I know, this man of mine sounds too good to be true. But, I am here to testify that he's as true as can be. So, here's to you, Jared. You are rad and I love you. Happy, happy birthday!