Flash back to a month before the wedding. We're at DEFCon. This will be my fourth conference, third competing with MLF in the Mystery Crypto Challenge, and my then fiancee's first. She has a political science background, and was primarily going to find out what all the fuss was about. After all, I had been talking about DefCon for the entire time we had been dating. Three days of intense crypto commenced and my fiancee says she saw something she'd never truly experienced before: me in my element, having so much fun alternating between extreme frustration and exhileration.
Fast forward to one month ago. DEFCon 23 has come around and my wife is coming with me again. As she watches us compete in the Mystery Crypto Challenge again, she is also listening closely and learning from what we're doing. She's not a programmer or a big fan of computers, but she'd absorbed enough crypto knowledge to begin formulating her own puzzles. Enough knowledge to be crypto-dangerous.
Today, my wife and I celebrated our one year wedding anniversary. I was... ah hem... a little behind and I had to go get her present first thing in the morning. When I returned, it was to the smell of bacon and there was a note on our front door.
"Welcome to the first anniversary badge challenge. Please proceed to check-in. The breakfast buffet is open."
Upon going up the stairs, I saw that our kitchen table sported a sign proclaiming, "Check-In. This is our first year in this location, please be patient as this might take a while." Just beyond that there was a white envelope with my name on it and two silver lanyards covered with black symbols and each supporting a set of bronze charms. I set down the flowers I was holding, gave my wife her gift bag, and opened the card.