Brandon and Rachel met online when Brandon responded to Rachel's Yahoo Personals ad in late June, 2005. Despite the fact that Rachel tried to make herself sound as geeky as humanly possible, Brandon was undeterred, and proceeded to send her strange photos of his distant hillbilly relatives. The weeks to come would give birth to tomes of email correspondances and furtive online messaging at work. Brandon would continue to pester Rachel to meet him in person until exasperated, she finally relented.

We first met in person on Monday, July 25 at a coffeehouse near Rachel's apartment in Clifton. Amidst the aroma of hazelnut and cigarette smoke, we talked for hours, as Brandon shredded the label of his beer bottle into confetti and Rachel nervously drank her fill of more than 20 cups of coffee. Minutes turned into hours, with each reluctant to end the reverie of the evening.

Since that day we've only been apart one day - the day after we met - and one week, when Rachel went to Las Vegas on business. Rachel knew it was true love when she looked into Brandon's freezer and discovered at least five different varieties of veggie burgers. The sentiment was reaffirmed by the fact that Brandon didn't think a woman with five cats strange in the slightest. In fact, Rachel would later discover that Brandon's mother is the self-described "cat lady" and her love of cats is genetic.

Two months after we met, Rachel moved in with Brandon, where she proceeded to girly up the place, rip out all the grass and plant scores of flowers. Brandon installed a kitty door to the basement for the cats and relinquished three of his dresser drawers and much of the house's closet space. Walking aimlessly around Lowe's is now a favorite pasttime for the couple, who sink most of their extra money into their circa 1910, Craftsman-style house, which overlooks the city of Cincinnati.

Brandon proposed on Valentine's Day, 2007 and the two were married on Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - two years to the day they first met at a crowded Clifton coffeehouse.