Me, My Wife and the Vibro-Reclining Chair

Its funny how your [fill-in-the-blank: wife, lover, significant other] will go about letting you know what she wants for her birthday. You'd think after 22 years of marriage finding a birthday present for my wife would be a cinch. That's pretty much true, but just to make sure, my wife has her own little ritual to let me know she has a particular birthday present on her mind. I don't mind this at all. These little hints of hers have enabled me to do the right thing at least once a year - while at the same time preventing me from purchasing a power saw or a pneumatic hammer and then disguising it as a birthday gift for my wife.

So this year (today is her birthday by the way) the process started a few weeks out. My wife apparently mentioned to my daughter -- as innocently and nonchalantly as possible -- that she wanted something for her back. My daughter than dutifully passed this Intel on to me: "Mom told me she wanted something for her back." The next challenge here is to decipher this information. What exactly does "something for her back" mean? A tattoo? A small umbrella that mounts on your shoulder and keeps the sun off? A whip? So I incurred my daughter with the responsibility of going back to get some clarification. A day or two later my kid returned to me to spill the beans. I discovered that "something for her back" really meant a chair with some kind with a built in back massage device.

I did not know this type of chair existed. But apparently my wife had seen something like this -- or exactly like this -- on TV one day and felt that it would make a great birthday gift. Or at the very least a great suggestion for a birthday gift.