March 28, 2008 is the 10th anniversary of my relationship with Stockholm, give or take a few years that I spent with my first love, Helsinki. Time flies. This is a shot I took today, I’m sure you can appreciate the beauty of Stockholm.

She’s still beautiful to me in that classy kind of way. She keeps surprising me, she brings me up when I’m down, and she carries me through the dark winter wrapped around in her silent strength and radiance that gives me hope of a better day. She makes me laugh, she makes me feel good about myself, she makes me proud, she makes me skip on the streets, and she gives me a sense of a purpose.

My wife, that is. She celebrates her birthday today, on Valentine’s Day, as always.

But Stockholm’s pretty damn nice, too, as cities go.