Our first Fourteenth we went to Brooklyn's best
New restaurant. It seemed we walked for miles
Through freezing cold, but I knew by your smiles
I'd chosen well and you were well impressed.

Our third Fourteenth was filled with wedding plans.
I'm still not sure who popped the question first.
By Fourteenth number nine we were immersed
In thoughts of westward roads and moving vans.

Our tenth Fourteenth blew prudence to the sky
With fourteen courses served by silent staff.
Such frills on this Fourteenth? It is to laugh.
We're happy to stay home and order Thai.

My Valentine you've been, the count now stands,
Two times for every finger on your hands.

Friends of ours often ask me to remind them what it is that Laura does for a living. It's a little hard to explain, but this article from yesterday's New York Times does a pretty good job of spelling it out:

(Go ahead and read it now. I'll wait.)

A Push to Promote Familiar Brands Online

(Done? Okay, cool.)

Though Laura's name doesn't appear in the article, she's the one who spearheaded most of that effort at General Mills. That's what she does—comes up with digital strategies for her clients, and then gets the work done. The stuff for General Mills happened while she was at her old job. She's now doing similar sorts of things for clients at her new employer, MSL Chicago, where she is Senior Vice President, Director of Digital.

She works damn hard, and works damn smart. I couldn't be more proud of her.

Exactly ten years ago today, I did the best thing I ever did. That's the day I married the warm, witty, wonderful Laura Chavoen. There are plenty of things I would do over in my life if I could, but if not doing them meant switching over to some alternate timestream never reaching that best moment ever, well, I'd do every one of those stupid things again, just so I could get to that one smartest, best thing.

I've written elsewhere about how Laura and I met and started dating. I'm not sure I've written about how our wedding came to be aired on the Travel Channel, but that's a story I'll tell another day. All I really want to say today is that I could not be more fortunate than to be charging headlong into the future with the smart, funny, beautiful partner that I have. She keeps treating each new year as an adventure, and she keeps pushing me to do the same. And I'll tell you what else—there's no one I'd rather be stranded without a visa at the Egyptian border with.

Often when we're listening to the news in the morning and they're running an obituary and people are talking about what a wonderful, selfless person the deceased was, Laura will say, "If I die, don't sugarcoat anything. Tell the radio, 'She could be a real bitch sometimes.'" Well, I look forward to another umpteen decades of hearing Laura say that while we're listening to an obituary on the radio. And me saying back, "You know, you're not that big a bitch."

She says she likes it when I'm sassy. Which is only one of the reasons I love her.

[Here are a bunch more photos from our big Las Vegas wedding.]

Hey, Laura and I are in a book! A whole bunch of our friends too, not to mention Buzz Aldrin. Not our writings but our smiling mugs:

http://www.365portraits.com/book/

What a fun project that was to be a part of.

So Laura is right now running the Boston Marathon. She passed the 10K mark (almost a quarter of the way) a few minutes ago, and is running a 9-minute pace. If she maintains that, she'll come in under four hours. I'm incredibly proud of her!

You can track Laura's progress here. Her bib number is 18649. Three more hours!

I'm about to take the T out to Boston College to try to spot her there.

For the online component of a Sunday story about unique office spaces, the Chicago Tribune used several photographs of the offices where Laura works. Check out numbers 1 through 5, from the Imagination offices.

So, the company my wife works for has been redoing their web site—transparently, exposing the whole process. Every week they post updates about the project, and this week's offering is...

Engaging Imagination, with Laura Chavoen, Senior Vice President, Digital Media

The following press release excerpt comes from PR Newswire:

CHICAGO, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Laura Chavoen has joined Imagination Publishing as senior vice president of digital media. She reports to James E. Meyers, president. Chavoen oversees online publishing, all aspects of digital media strategy development and day-to-day operations of Imagination's digital media department. She also is intimately involved in business development activities for new and existing clients.

"Laura comes to Imagination with more than 15 years of big-time digital media and custom publishing experience," Meyers said. "Her experience at companies such as Scholastic, Yamaha, SkyMall, Razorfish and Harper Collins is an exciting addition to the online publishing and digital media capabilities of Imagination Publishing."

Chavoen's arrival coincides with a significant increase in the staffing and resources of Imagination Publishing due to rapid growth in clients' digital media needs....  [full press release]

Happy birthday to Laura!