Always Luxury

In an age when divorce rates are at an all-time high and few relationships last more than a year, it’s somewhat miraculous that my parents celebrated their 30th anniversary last month. On such a momentous occasion, I was hard-pressed to come up with a gift idea. My brother and sisters had been talking about their prospective gifts for weeks leading up to the party, and I kept putting the decision off until the last minute.

In search of some inspiration, I asked my grandmother permission to look through some old photo albums. Then, smack-dab in the middle of an album from the late ’70s, it hit me. I found the funniest old photo of my parents attending a Halloween party as cast members from The Godfather. I found an elaborate photo frame to complement the image and wrapped it up in preparation for the big day.

I adopted a Siberian husky from the pound about a year ago, and the learning curve has been steep. Huskies aren’t exactly easy to train, and it took a few months to get the puppy to behave acceptably around other people. Unfortunately, I still haven’t trained her not to run away from the house. So far it’s happened twice, and without the help of designer leather dog collars, she might still be lost.

It all started when I let the dog outside to use the bathroom and turned around for a few minutes – seven at the most. When I shifted my attention back out the window, I saw that the dog had run away. I rushed outside to investigate, thinking that at least I had remembered to fit her with a collar featuring all of her identification tags. Just before evening, a good Samaritan returned her safely to my apartment door.