the legend of wally sims

My husband has an excellent sense of humor. His wit is smart and dry and I love it. A couple of years ago we attended the wedding of a friend and former colleague of his. Jon and Angela were marriend in January of 2003 in a lovely chapel in Charlotte, NC. and had a very nice reception at a cozy Bed and Breakfast. Before going to the wedding, Mark had this grand idea to get Jon and Angela a gift and sign the card from Wally Sims. It was an inside joke from his days in Minneapolis working with Jon. Trouble is for the last 2 years Jon and Angela have been racking their brains trying to figure out who Wally Sims was and why he attended their wedding. Mark explains:

Jon,

When I first joined the Deluxe project, you and I sat next to each
other in a crappy zone of cubicles that was poorly laid out.

A few months later, a construction crew came in and re-built all of
the cubicles, gave us nice desks, directors moved offices, etc. In
order to prepare for the move, our technical team had to box up all of
our stuff.

In boxing up all of our stuff, there was a bunch of left over crap
that you, me , Baker, Krause, Lovie, Helgeson, etc. had and didn't
want. We dumped all of this stuff into a box. Since Paula
wanted everything to have a label on it, I wrote "Wally Sims" on the
box.

Wally Sims was a friend of mine from high school that me and a bunch
of guys were very good friends with, but he moved in 10th grade and
nobody ever heard from him again.

I thought having a box with Wally Sims on it would be hilarious, and
it was. That box had no place to go , as it migrated from conference
room to conference room for a few years with everyone totally
clueless.

Many years later, I thought that it would be equally hilarious to
leave a card for you and Angela at your wedding from Waly Sims.

I originally pictured this scene:

Newlyweds Jon and Angela in their house, a few days after the wedding,
opening cards and gifts. Angela opens a card and says "Who's Wally
Sims?" Jon then remembers the whole Wally Sims thing and proceeds to
laugh his ass off, then send me an e-mail.

Oops. Didn't happen that way. At least you guys had something to
think about for the last few years.

Hope you enjoyed the card. Thanks to Dennis for keeping the joke
under wraps all this time.

Love,
Mark

So now the cat is finally out of the bag, and the mystery is solved. I had a big laugh about it. In fact I thought that it was revealed not long after the wedding. I was feeling a little guilty because all this time they probably thought all we got them was a lousy lamp!