"Last Night On the Back Porch (I Loved Her Best Of All)"

It's just kinky to me, or, kinky considering this is Reader's Digest. The additional verses have him loving her in a taxi and in a rowboat, among other things. This is a songtype that one's archetypal Uncle Joe would sing, while drunk, at family gatherings. Some people would join in, everybody else would laugh heartily.

Tonight my husband and I are going out for our anniversary. We're going out to dinner at Kaya, a Carribean-themed restaurant in Pittsburgh's Strip District, which has nothing to do with strip clubs. We haven't been to this restaurant in years, not since the first couple of years that it was open here. It's part of a larger restaurant group owned locally, with each restaurant being unique and different: sushi, Meditteranean, Mexican, Pan-Asian, contemporary (whatever that means). Coincidentally, and of vague interest, Kaya is Tori Amos's favorite restaurant to come to when she's in town. My friend, Jim, likes it for lunch. My husband is looking forward to their beer selection.

We've been married for eight years today, which seems, suddenly, like not a short period of time. When people ask me how long I've lived in Pittsburgh I say, 'Not long, only twelve years.' And it isn't long, for Pittsburgh: the 'real' citizens here have not only lived here their whole lives, their parents and grandparents were born here as well. But eight years seems like it's getting somewhere, in the land of being married. We've been through a share of struggle, we're raising a daughter who's now a bigger kid, we own a house, our careers are moving slowly ahead, and we're lucky enough to still like and even desire each other. It is very good.