[QUOTE=rogue;529790]Today is my 20th wedding anniversary! :w00t: [/QUOTE]
Congratulations!

[QUOTE=rogue;529790]Today is my 20th wedding anniversary! :w00t: It has been a great 20 years together with many years and adventures ahead of us.

The cherry on top is that I have been away for a week and am able to return today instead of tomorrow.[/QUOTE]Marriage is not a word, it's a sentence.

SWMBO and I have just passed our 30th weeding anniversary. Not sure what that is. Definitely not silver or gold. Molybdenum perhaps?

[QUOTE=xilman;529953]Marriage is not a word, it's a sentence.[/quote]Traditionally, a [i]life[/i] sentence.

[quote]SWMBO and I have just passed our 30th weeding anniversary. Not sure what that is. Definitely not silver or gold. Molybdenum perhaps?[/QUOTE]From any number of online sources, Thirtieth wedding anniversary: Traditional (UK and USA)

Precious gift -- pearl (symbol of purity and elegance)

Color -- green

Flower -- lily

"Modern" American gift: diamond.

Also traditional:

If you [b]forget[/b] [i]any[/i] wedding anniversary, it's curtains for you!

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;529961]If you [b]forget[/b] [i]any[/i] wedding anniversary, it's curtains for you![/QUOTE]

If I may please share a true story (I'm currently waiting for an rsync through an SSH tunnel to complete)...

I was married to my first wife on 2000.02.29. A "special case" leap-day (in the Gregorian calendar). The simple rule for leap-days is "when divisible by 4, except when divisible by 100, except when divisible by 400.

My first wife was a bit of a "geek" herself and tolerated this request. The rest of the family (on both sides) whined about having to travel to a ceremony being held on a Tuesday.

Hey... My obligation is to invite you. You don't /have/ to attend.

Time passed, and cool stuff happened.

I'm not sure if it was because I pointed out that because we were wed on a leap-day, I had a +/- 1-day temporal window to remember, and buy a gift and/or arrange a dinner for, an anniversary of something that happened in the past. I found this explanation, strangely, rarely went down well...

Eventually, my first wife and I found our interests diverging... Both being mature and serious people, we negotiated an equitable divorce. Signed the paperwork, hugged goodbye, and then got on with our lives. (To be honest, there might have been a little bit of crying going on during the process. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.)

After a while, I met my current SHMBO. On a Hash, actually. Going on something like twelve years.

Ahh... My rsync has just completed...

TL;DR: It is good having a trusted partner beside you.

You might fight like cats-and-dogs, but always have each other's backs.

(I've found it's kinda cool, as a very technical person, to have someone artistic at your side. The artists often see things we geeks don't.)

[QUOTE=xilman;529953]Marriage is not a word, it's a sentence.

SWMBO and I have just passed our 30th weeding anniversary. Not sure what that is. Definitely not silver or gold. Molybdenum perhaps?[/QUOTE]

Congratulations!

Starting a Periodic Table theme would cause considerable trouble in three years and striking inconvenience in thirteen.

[QUOTE=fivemack;529973]Congratulations!

Starting a Periodic Table theme would cause considerable trouble in three years and striking inconvenience in thirteen.[/QUOTE]

And here I had just found myself galvanized into congratulating Paul & SWMBO on their Zinc wedding anniversary. :)

I like the periodic table idea, we just need to take proper elementary precautions in the danger years. In the case of the As-niversary year 33, perhaps a small sample of shiny metallic As enclosed in a glass ampule for a necklace or earrings, or a sample of semiconductor GaAs (with a suitably passivating coating) worked into a piece of jewelry.

One disadvantage of so using the elements is that Golden anniversaries would be exceedingly rare. But perhaps that is as it should be, and long-wedded couple could look forward to all manner of interesting annual rites. "Dear, don't forget this year is our Cadmium anniversary!"

[QUOTE=chalsall;529968]I was married to my first wife on 2000.02.29. A "special case" leap-day (in the Gregorian calendar). The simple rule for leap-days is "when divisible by 4, except when divisible by 100, except when divisible by 400.[/QUOTE]I know someone quite well that was wed on that day too. This was Spouse v2.0 Currently they are in late alpha trials of v3.0.

A friend was born on that day of the year (in a different year.) They once taught young children that had had more birthdays than they had. Rather than celebrating the X0 and X5 birthdays with friends, they have been celebrating big with friends on the actual date. For their 10th birthday, they had a sleepover with a decade theme (for the decade that was extent when they had 3653 elapsed days.)

[QUOTE=fivemack;529973]Congratulations!

Starting a Periodic Table theme would cause considerable trouble in three years and striking inconvenience in thirteen.[/QUOTE]SWMBO has already been given a sample of Tc, courtesy of the NHS.

[QUOTE=xilman;529953]Marriage is not a word, it's a sentence.

SWMBO and I have just passed our 30th weeding anniversary. Not sure what that is. Definitely not silver or gold. Molybdenum perhaps?[/QUOTE]

Congrats!

I'm thinking "aluminium".

[QUOTE=fivemack;529973]Congratulations!

Starting a Periodic Table theme would cause considerable trouble in three years and striking inconvenience in thirteen.[/QUOTE]
Lithium, element number 3, and the first of the "alkali metals," is highly reactive, especially with water. The other alkali metals (sodium, potassium, etc) are if anything more reactive, but all are solids. Laboratory samples have traditionally been kept in oil to isolate them from air and moisture.

The alkaline earths are similarly active. Element 4, beryllium, is probably the nastiest alkaline earth to deal with. I wouldn't want [i]any[/i] pure beryllium around. There are however a number of minerals classified as precious stones containing this element, a notable example being emerald. Giving such a gem as a gift may be accompanied by a celebratory polka which begins[quote]Roll out the beryl, and let's have a barrel of fun...[/quote]

Element number 9, fluorine, may require the most caution. It is the most elecronegative element, and is a gas at room temperature.

Its existence was surmised by Antoine Lavoisier in his 1789 Traité Élémentaire de Chimie. The existence of an element analogous to chlorine obtainable from hydrofluoric acid was predicted in 1810 by André-Marie Ampère.

Efforts to isolate it began in 1812. After 74 years of unsuccessful attempts by different chemists, some of whom died as "fluorine martyrs," its isolation was finally achieved in 1886 by Henri Moissan using low-temperature electrolysis.

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;530024]The other alkali metals (sodium, potassium, etc) are if anything more reactive, but all are solids.[/QUOTE]And if they are not anything?