A series of images from his 31st birthday, in which I pulled out all the stops. I set up an elaborate treasure hunt, I decorated with the finest accessories the Dollar Store had to offer, and I had a grand surprise waiting for him at the end of the trail.

(click images to view full size)

top row, left to right
1. Two notes hang under the "Happy Place" sign on our front door:
A birthday hunt awaits you here. 6 gifts are hidden somewhere near. Follow clues around the house until you find your loving spouse.

Clue #1: Though small I'll catch your cares with ease. Start out where you rest your keys.

2. The first prize is a small ceramic trinket dish resting on his bedside table. It is inscribed, "pray more. worry less."
Clue #2: No need for Travelocity where I roam, I'm in the guest room of your home.

3. The next gift is a gnome plush with a big hat and super long legs, lounging on top of the guest bed.
Clue #3: You'll never miss us in the dark. We're prowling where you keep your Quark. (the cheese, not the ferengi)

4. Gift three is a bundle of various glow in the dark dinosaur toys including one Grow and Glow figurine, and a two-pack of dinosaur bone model kits. I wrapped them in tissue paper and hid them in the fridge.
Clue #4: DASH now to the TV screen. There I'll greet you "bween, bween, bweeeeen!"

bottom row, left to right
1. On top of the TV is perched treasure four, an imported figurine of Tron Bonne using a servbot as a chair.
Clue #5: In the top drawer by your computer, waits a litter than couldn't be cuter.

2. The next prize, found in his computer desk drawer, is a package of holographic kitten stickers.
Clue #6: In the office a treasure find. Learn to see what once was blind.

{insert minor explanatory detour}
The whole time he had been on an adventure quest around the house, I had been silently hiding in my office with The Big Gift.

As many of you know, my husband is colorblind. He considers it his only party trick, but I know there are times he wishes he could see the intricacies and vibrancy in color that everyone else around him experiences. So I bought him a set of EnChroma glasses, which aid in filtering color perception for people with colorblindness, often allowing them to experience certain hues for the first time. I was expecting them to blow his mind.

Unfortunately, the glasses did not end up doing as much as I'd hoped. While certain things, like his plaid shirts, registered as noticeably different, it was more of a "Huh, that's kind of cool. This shirt looks less dull than usual" and not a tearful "Green! I can see green! Look at this shirt! Have you ever seen a more wonderful shirt in all creation?!" Most things looked more or less the same. Sadly, we ultimately ended up returning the glasses at the end of the trial period because we just couldn't justify the price tag for the little they did for his specific condition.
{end detour}

3.+4. Long view and closeup of the party decorations. I splurged on every bright and colorful thing I could find, hoping to give him plenty of fodder for his new glasses to soak in: multi-colored paper stars, paper streamers, a hot pink princess tablecloth, rainbow candles, two different Happy Birthday banners, a hoard of balloons, and a generous smattering of dice. Even though the glasses didn't work out, we had fun pelting each other with balloons for the next few weeks.

A dumb joke photoshop I made for my husband of a screenshot from Mega Man 10 enhanced with additional Spikes/Spykes and a Megaman-branded light bulb.

References include Rugrats, Buffy, Cowboy Bebop, Spike TV, Spike Lee, X-Men: Evolution, Tom and Jerry, Space Quest V, The Land Before Time, and Dick Tracy.

Here are various images from Valentine's Days of yore.

Speaking of things I leave on his computer for him to find, here is an example of other dumb things I do to surprise him...

Okay, that's the last of the "specifically drawn to be annoying" posts. There are still a few digital notes lined up for this week, but they are regular weird as opposed to desktop-clutter weird.

As a palate-cleanser, here are a few pictures from our first "Fishmas" celebration.

We've had Chintzy Blue, our belovedly-tacky Christmas tree, for almost a decade now, but in 2015 we finally decided to use its color to full advantage and adopt an underwater theme for our holiday decor. I handmade the starfish tree topper, which, while thematically appropriate, isn't quite as fun as either the "dead Harry Potter angel" I previously made out of cut paper, or the "Dr. Wily with floating coat action" figurine we used for the first few years.

[photo of Chintzy Blue lit up. Along with the starfish topper, it has a "sand" tree skirt adorned with collected shells, and various fish, boat, penguin, buoy, lure, seahorse, and stingray ornaments]

The next few weeks are going to be an exercise in inanity and absurdity, with a series of speed-drawn digital joke doodles that make scribbling look like fine art.

Before we get into that, though, here are a few pictures from our 4th anniversary celebration back in 2015...

[front sides of the cards we made for each other]
His is a computer printout of the abrian monster ("ostrich with arms") as it appears in the D&D 3.0 "Fiend Folio."
Mine is a colored pencil drawing on brown cardstock depicting a maple tree being tapped for syrup.

[insides of the two cards]
His:
"Being with you gives me all sorts of warm, fuzzy emutions.
...sorry; I guess that was a bit of ostrich.
Happy 4th Anniversary!
Love, Nathaniel"

Mine:
"Just another "sappy" anniversary card...
Love, Wiffy"

[photo of the dinner table with it's white brocade tablecloth, white lace table runner, fancy place settings, decorative garden-themed candle arrangements, and assortment of homemade pastie pastries]

[closeup on one of the place settings. It has a polished bamboo placemat topped with an embellished blue ceramic plate. In the center of the plate sits a green napkin folded into a rose, and adorned with cut paper leaves. Around the sides are silver spiral cutlery, a square-sided glass, and an ornamental miniature origami crane]

The next 11 days I will be sharing art from Drawlloween 2015. *Technically* I didn't create any of them for my husband or his lunches, but he *did* help me brainstorm ideas, and I *did* excitedly run up and show them off to him after I finished each one like a kid who hopes their efforts will be impressive enough to put on the refrigerator, so he says they can count as additional posts here.

Before that, though, here are some celebratory pictures from Halloweens of yore to help put you in an appropriately spooky mood.

[two photographs of a pumpkin with a cat face carved into it]

[photograph of a carved turnip face with its tongue sticking out, and with leafy growth that looks like hair]

Lastly, here is a photo of a graveyard cake I made for our D&D group. I can't take credit for the pun names, though. Those came from a Google search.

[the cake has five Oreo crumble loose graves surrounded by piped gel frosting grass, with candy bones popping up through the "dirt." the headstones read "Hugh B. Next," "Barry D. Hatchet," "Dee Cayed," "Ricky T. Bones," and "Myra Mains."]