Ode to Paco

Paco and I are approaching our 15th anniversary. That may not sound like much to seasoned veterans of marriage.  But rather than lament about that, we've chosen to celebrate in grand fashion--more on that later, AND it will come with an ALERT because you may run screaming from the computer, "I HATE THE HADD'S!!!!!  I'm pausing to make a list of 60 marvelous magical things of a Paco-vian nature:

•  keeps the home fires burning literally (we heat partially by woodstove)
•  scrubs the kitchen floors
•  is the master of uber intelligent conversation (I maintain that he's the smartest person in the whole gosh darn state...)
•  does the wash
•  womps up some pretty mean French dishes
•  walks the dog
•  pays the bills
•  never EVER complains when I take off for a night, day, week, month...
•  will go to the temple with almost no notice at all
•  disposes of mice
•  fathers 9 alpacas
•  calls his mother every week
•  brings flowers on occasion (in the first 5 years of marriage when he had ready access to fresh flowers in Penn Station he brought them WEEKLY!)
•  attends school board meetings just for fun and makes wry remarks to people around him 
•  is my live-in substitute teacher ( LURVE this one!)
•  brings me breakfast EVERY single day
•  warms up the bathroom for me to take a shower
•  delivers anything I ever forget to my school
•  goes on provisional shopping trips
•  sews sleeping bags, backpacks, and polar fleece items
•  does copious amounts of internet research on a topic I might just casually mention AND binds  it into ready reference books (I'm not making this up!)
•  maximizes EVERYTHING i.e. vacation plans etc. When you travel with him you accomplish 3 times what a tour agency would squeeze in.  He's phenomenol at planning.  Masterful
•  takes on about 95% of the cooking and dishwashing
•  mends
•  irons
•  does the yardwork
•  paints inside and out
•  makes exotic homemade soaps for special romantic gifts
•  is always on time
•  makes the most delectable boules (French peasant breads with only yeast, flour, salt, and water) to eat with his amazing soups
•  keeps trim and fit
•  gives me lots of good belly laughs...very cerebral sense of humor.  Not much on frivolity.
•  untangles all my technology snafus
•  loves to invite people over and cook for them
•  maintains a cool new website
•  gives great backrub "treatments" to Mugsy and me
•  loves to soak in the bathtub (his one self indulgence)
•  reads any and every book about Roosevelts
•  can't get enough of Downton Abbey
•  is very very content
•  delights in surprising me with all manner of things
•  loves to haul hay to our animals on his little blue tractor
•  bears no malice for anyone--unlike the shrew he married
•  home teaches religiously
•  does carpentry work around the house upon request
•  loves to tote around a large backpack whenever we go anywhere and gets giddy if he has something in it that you ever actually need!  He used to "backpack" across Time Square in a suit when he worked in the city.  Very distinguishable among the throngs.
•  loves to pour over seed catalogs and Mother Earth News.  I think it surprises even him that deep down inside him was a Granola!!
•  gives conference-worthy talks!!!  Really he does.
•  is the BEST teacher.  When he got released as gospel doctrine teacher in Princeton, some friends of ours wore black armbands in protest!
•  watches Perry Mason ad nauseum
•  talks to himself even when I'm around--it's his method of problem solving from politics to sociological concerns
•  swings an ax like Paul Bunyan and amasses an incredible amount of firewood every fall
•  teaches me French children's songs
•  strums a mean guitar (and supposedly banjo too, although I've yet to confirm that.  He may be a closet one of those.)
•  mimics some people perfectly, although he'll deny that and won't do it publicly
•  perfect griller
•  surprises me--I came home to jumbalaya tonight!!!  A first!
•  sings duets with me
•  has read the Harry Potter books all through 4 times
•  loves Mad