But it isn't. Because when (Kenny) Mayne, 40, and his wife, Laura, sit down to play board games, their teams sometimes include the names of twin baby boys who died, even two other babies who were miscarried. To remember the twins, they take vacations they would have taken with them, such as going to Disney World with Connor's toy bears on their second birthday. "We're imagining what we'd be doing with them at stages in their lives," Mayne says. "And we want to make sure the day won't be forgotten."

Then there's the odd sideshow of Mayne's career. At a time when his top-tier ESPN colleagues already had reached TV prominence, Mayne was outside assembling garbage cans in the Seattle rain. And glad to be there: Broke, he'd already put his dog up for adoption.

When Laura's brother suggested she go on a blind date with Kenny (Mayne) in 1982, she asked him if he was "insane" to even think she'd date his friends. As Laura begins to explain they got to know each other by the time each was married to another person, Kenny pipes up from another room, "Just say we met through friends."