Married In Ohio

February
Started original blog on Blogger on the 12th. Who Am I and Why Am I Here was the first post.
We didn’t post as frequently when we first got started. An Eventful Uneventful Weekend was just our eighth post in 16 days.

March
Received our first comment ever on our A Strange First post about oral sex on her while California Girl’s period was in full flow.

April
Decided we liked blogging enough to get our own domain. marriedinohio.com was born on April 6th. Migration Complete, our first post on the new site was about the successful relocation of all of the previous posts and their corresponding comments from Blogger and HaloScan.
Completed the obligatory 100 Things About Us post.
The first naked pictures of California Girl appear in California Girl’s Tan Lines.

And California Girl’s Tan Lines - 2.

The first naked pictures of Midwestern City Boy appear in Midwestern City Boy’s Tan Lines.

Posted an illustrated ABC list.

May
California Girl and I had sex in front of an audience on closed circuit television at a local swing club.

June
Finally able to enjoy our swimming pool.

Experienced perhaps the best summer day ever.

July
Chronicled our Independence Day sex tradition.

Hit 20,000 visitors on July 5th.
Made a new friend after splashing liquid shock from the pool in my eye.

Had sex in the swimming pool.

August
Fished A BIG Dead Thing out of the swimming pool.
Posted our first HNT photograph.

Made our own Flickr magazine cover.

September
Did our first audio post.
Bid a fond farewell to summer over the Labor Day weekend.

Started our Two For Tuesday posts.

October
Was super busy now that fall sports for both kids were in full swing.
Dressed as barbarians for Halloween.

November
Flipped up our loin cloths and had sex in public on a couch in a common area at a local swing club.
Hit 100,000 visitors on November 6th.
Had fun in and out of the Jacuzzi after a Thanksgiving morning road race.

December
Did another bedroom audio post.
Chronicled our Christmas vacation sex tradition.

Gave California Girl a diamond anniversary ring on the 20th anniversary of our engagement.

I have been struggling upgrading from WordPress 1.5.2 to 2.0. I seem to have worked out most of the kinks; I can actually post know. There was a hiccup in the upgrade script so I could not log in until I could fix everything manually. I wanted to do the upgrade while I was on vacation and had plenty of time. Boy am I glad that I did. Everything seems to be working now. Let me know if you have any problems.

And I know that the site is slower than it was before I upgraded. The new version implements caching and is supposed to be faster. I don’t know why page generation times have increased. I’ll see what I can tweak to make things go faster. Maybe I need a faster web server (which isn’t happening).

We’ll get back to regularly scheduled programming tomorrow. Also, once I’m done tinkering, I plan to stop by and catch up on what’s been happening on everyone’s blogs.

Our End of Year HNT photo is a picture of California Girl and me in our Santa hats. I like this photo because it shows our fun we had this Christmas vacation. Plus if you look closely, you can see the two pieces of jewelry we always wear; our matching wristwatches and our wedding rings. And California Girl is wearing her new anniversary ring.

We looked and looked at our previous HNT pictures but couldn’t decide on a favorite. Each one had something that we liked. In the end, we couldn’t choose just one.

If you have a favorite, please let us know. You can use the HNT category in the sidebar for easy access to all of our HNT pictures. We also have some other photographs in the Photos category if you are interested.

Here is the fourteenth edition of our Tuesday tradition. I don’t know when I’m going to stop counting. I would have had these up earlier since I’m on vacation but we were watching “Lord Of The Rings”.

It’s after Christmas but here are some pictures of us wearing Santa hats. We decided to take a few snapshots before we put them away for the year. We had intended to have a full photo session but I was sick the week before Christmas.

Sometimes, California Girl takes the cutest pictures when she’s just sitting there helping me aim the camera for a self-portrait.

We kept the hats on for our “after party” after we had taken our HNT photographs. Sex in the Santa hats reminded us of sex in the barbarian battle helmets at Halloween.

Osbasso’s theme for End of Year HNT is repost your favorite HNT picture that you’ve posted, but we will be posting an all new photo on Thursday since we like to take and post a new picture each week. We’ll also repost our favorite HNT photograph if we can pick one.

Twenty years ago this Christmas, I got engaged to California Girl. I bought her engagement ring at a jewelry store in the mall. And I gave it to her the day after Christmas on the couch at my parent’s house. The only one that saw the ring before hand was my sister.

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of our engagement, I bought her an anniversary ring at a jewelry store in the mall. And I gave it to her the day after Christmas on the couch at our house. This time, the only one that saw the ring before hand was The Girl.

I had been practicing my “speech” for days but shortly before I gave it to her I ripped it up and made a new one. I’m not good with speeches anyway and the one that I had been working on seemed too formal and too “practiced”. I finally said something like this:

Well. It was 20 years ago that I produced the gem and asked “So, what do you think?” So, I thought that today on the anniversary of our engagement that I’d have another gem (actually 10 if them) and a statement rather than a question. I’m not real good with speeches but I want for you to know that the last 22 have been irreplaceable. And, although we have had our ups and downs, I am very glad that we have found each other. You are an incomparable woman that I really don’t deserve. But, here we are in our new house with two wonderful children. And I still look forward to waking up next to you each day. “So, what do you think about another 20 years?”

That’s not quite how it went but those were the basic thoughts. I did really conclude with “So, what do you think about another 20 years?” That’s because things got started, all those years ago with “So, what do you think?” I probably too sentimental, but I had too do everything just like I did then. I even wrapped it up in a shoe box just like before.

So here’s a picture of California Girl’s new ring. It’s the one at the top.

Midwestern City Boy & California Girl

Midwestern City Boy and I were both tagged by Narcissus. The rules are in his post below. Here are my answers:

1. I fidget with my wedding and engagement rings, spinning it around on my finger.
2. I am comfortable going braless under skimpy summer tops but feel more comfortable with an undershirt under sweaters in the winter. It’s just the way it feels.
3. I always arrange the food on my plate a specific way; for example, my hamburger to the right and potato chips to the left.
4. I forget that I have a cell phone and guess about things rather than calling someone and finding out for sure.
5. Even though I know I am probably going to have sex, I almost never get my diaphragm until we have actually started. It’s kind of a “foreign object” and I don’t like to put it in until it’s absolutely required.

I was tagged for this one by both Narcissus and Pretty Peanut. California Girl was also tagged by Narcissus. Her answers are in the post above. We are not tagging anybody since it is Christmas.

Here are the rules; the first player of this game starts with the topic. Five weird habits of yourself and people who get tagged need to write an entry about their five weird habits as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next five people to be tagged and link to their web journals. Don’t forget to leave a comment in their blog or journal that says “You are tagged” (assuming they take comments) and tell them to read yours.

This was harder than I thought but here are my 5 weird habits:

1. I wear my eye glasses everywhere (except when I am sleeping). Even in the shower.
2. I have a specific way that I arrange my shirts in the closet. They always have to face the same direction and are arranged by color, pattern, sleeve length, and style.
3. I have a good memory and don’t generally need to write things down to remember them but I take notes in meetings at work (and throw them away afterwards) to assure the other participants that I am paying attention.
4. I used to be heavy so I run every day (except Saturday) no matter what; and usually outside. If it’s raining, I run. If it’s snowing, I run. If it’s freezing cold, I run. If I’m so sick I can barely stand up, I run. I have been known to go running (on the treadmill) at 2:00 A.M. in the morning because I got busy on a hot project at work and didn’t get finished until just before then.
5. I do my best to pay the exact amount when making cash purchases. I never have more than 99 cents change or have more than four pennies in my pocket.

Christmas is in three days so we thought out HNT post should be holiday themed. We always take pictures similar to the ones below every year at Christmastime. This year, we though we would share our Holiday spirit with the HNT community. Midwestern City Boy and California Girl would like to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season.

Merry Christmas.

Happy Holidays.

Also, we have the Santa hats and will be having a Santa hat photo session sometime over our Christmas vacation.

Update: I’ve been sick so it took a while to get with the program. Here is the list of gifts to our fellow HNTers:

• To Osbasso, I would give the $$$ to go on endless world tours so he could meet every HNT contributor in person.
• To The Liberal Republican I would give a world in which there is no crime or other divisive issues so being liberal or conservative would be purely an intellectual exercise.
• And lastly, to the jerks that makes fun of people’s HNT photographs, I would give a life. You really, really need one.

I do not have pictures since my gifts are more ideas more than things.

For as long as we have lived in our current house, California Girl and I have taken pictures of ourselves having sex under the Christmas tree. We did the 2005 version on Tuesday while the kids were in school. I wasn’t 100% because of the flu but I’d have to be dead not to want to have sex with California Girl. It’s occasions like this that make Christmas vacation one of my most favorite times of the year.

We used our usual set up. (Camera set to take a picture every 15-seconds attached to a mini-tripod on the half-wall between the kitchen and family room.) One of these days, we’ll have a live camera person.

Some of the photographs are out of sequence and there are probably a few more that should be included for a more cohesive representation of our encounter but that’s what happens when you do things when you’re sick. We hope you enjoy your look at one of our holiday traditions.

You can find all of the pictures here.