A hundred years or more.

My best girl's husband, Rod, turned 40 a little while ago. They are both extraordinary people who make my white picket fence world a lot more vivid, so I wanted to do something special in his honor.

I snapped the photo a couple of years ago at a dinner party. It just happened that Rod picked up that frame, and a moment was made. He was running as an independent candidate for governor at the time, very much putting himself out on a public limb, and I thought the photo was a perfect statement about persona.

For his birthday, I asked Patrick to tint the original photo in four shades, then send an order to Target from flickr for 100 4X6 prints (plus one to frame). It cost about 20 dollars. On the day of the party, I went down to the site and arranged them in a grid on the wall, 10 rows of 10, the colors moving diagonally (unlike the sample above). Underneath it, I stuck a printed label "Hope you live to be 100."

I wish I had gotten a good photo of the final installation, but I left my camera behind. It looked great. An easy, memorable, and budget-friendly way to mark a milestone birthday. Feel free to pass it on.