I was talking to SkooterPie this morning when Jesse stumbled out of his bedroom. "What do you want for breakfast, baby?" I asked him. He looked up at us with his sleepy eyes and answered, "half and half." No, he wasn't asking for cream in his team, he had just won our newest family game. See, many, many years ago, a friend of SkooterPie's invented "half and half" or "haf-n-haf" or whatever way you want to write it. Here's how you play: If I say half and half to you first, I win. That's it. You can only say it once a day. You can't say it over the phone. It's cooler if you can casually work into a conversation instead of just blurting it out like Jesse did this morning. But it's genius in its simplicity and at one time there were dozens of people playing it in Nashville. SkooterPie and I have thrown the occasional half and halfs at each other the years, but it's not something we've paid much attention to. But then we explained the game to Jesse, and the game has now reached a fever pitch in our house. I foresee a whole new generation of half and half players being born at Campus School this year.

SkooterPie and I also once played a months-long game with each other involving a trophy he won for being "Best Dressed" during Pioneer Day at good old Warren County Senior High School. Yes, he still has the trophy, and yes, it sits in a prominent place in our bedroom. Anyway, when we were first married, for some reason we started hiding that trophy in spots around the apartment so that the other person would stumble on it unsuspectingly. Example: I shoved it one of his shoes once. It could end up anywhere: cabinets, behind doors, in the refrigerator. But SkooterPie ultimately won the game when he presented me with a gift at my parents' house on Christmas morning. I opened the box and, stunned, pulled out the trophy. And my parents sat there looking at us like we were crazy while I laughed so hard I was crying.

On this date, 18 years ago, SkooterPie and I went on our first date together. I was a rising junior in high school, and SkooterPie was about to be a freshman in college when he flagged me and a friend down on "the strip" in McMinnville, leaned over the side of Eric Bouldin's convertible, and asked me if I liked REM. We went out a few days later. The rest, as they say, is history.