Who knew it would take the finale of How I Met Your Mother to get me back on blog duty?

But, kids, there is much to say, and this is where I get to have mine. (Also, I listed my blog on a bio for something over at a humor writers’ site and I don’t want the Erma Bombeck people there to think I’m resting on my laurels, lying around and watching sitcoms.)

But, seriously! What an ending, right?

I liked it. I found it a satisfying wrap for the gang at MacLaren’s.

Ted ends up with Robin. I saw this coming, even from episode one, and I rooted for it through all nine seasons, without sway. I’ll admit, when Cristin Milioti came along, especially when she sang La Vie en Rose while Ted listened just inches away, it was tempting to imagine she and Ted together forevs.

But, for Ted, it was always Robin. If I may borrow some language from that OTHER show that ran for a decade about a tight-knit group of New Yorkers who like to hang out at their favorite local watering hole, “She’s his lobster.”

Ten years ago, barely a year before Ted met Robin, we waited with bated breath to see if Ross would indeed end up with Rachel. And we all know what happened. She got off the plane.

So, why the kerfuffle over Ted and Robin?

I mean Ross was married and divorced three times before he and Rachel finally ceased “taking a break” forever and got together. And we celebrated.

Like HIMYM, Friends featured an adorable couple who we knew would survive the long haul. It featured a sex addict whose sad choices to have indiscriminant sex with hundreds of women was made “cute” because, well, again, the characters are fictional. Of course, there was Phoebe.  And, it featured a decade-long question mark over whether or not, in the end, the meant-to-be couple was truly meant-to-be. While Friends was moving on from the West Village, things were heating up on the Upper West Side for Teddy West Side and the gang.

In my world of sitcom happily-ever-afters, Ted and Robin are together. Yes, Ted loved the mother (who we now know as Tracy) and, honestly, we all did. She was awesome. And then (Thanks for keeping it real, Carter Bays and Craig Thomas!) she died.

Really, the idea that she died is no less believable than the idea that we could expect womanizing sex addict Barney Stinson to be able to sustain a faithful marriage without in-patient treatment and years of therapy. But the entire group would need to sober up to stage THAT intervention, wouldn’t they?

And let’s face it: the only reason we could even tolerate a character as foul as Barney is because Neil Patrick Harris is the most winsome individual ever to grace the planet and we forgive him instantly for his indiscretions. Anyone else (maybe even the way-less adorable Joey Tribbiani), we would knee in the crotch and hate forever. NPH makes Barney lovable.

He reeled us in one final time when he uttered those sweet, sweet words to his new daughter only moments after behaving like an ass in the waiting room. It’s the way of Barney. We allowed it for nine years. We have to let him keep being Barney. Even still, we can believe that he goes on to love his child and Suit Up while Manning Up.

In my romantic, love-never-gives-up heart, Ted and Robin were meant to be. I’ve always rooted for love for my favorite characters. Of course I love (and relate to) Lily and Marshall. I wanted Rachel with Ross. I wanted Loralai with Luke. I wanted Kurt with Blaine. I even wanted Joanie with Chachi. (I’ve been watching sitcoms for a long time.)

But people seem to feel duped that Ted ended up with Robin.

Um, haaaaaave you met Ted?

Ted has loved the mother without a trace of duplicity. He said of her, void of usual sitcom cheesy comedy:

 “If I hadn’t gone through Hell to get there, the lesson might not have been as clear. You see kids, right from the moment I met your mom, I knew I have to love this woman as much as I can for as long as I can and I can never stop loving her even for a second. I carried that lesson with me through every stupid fight we ever had, every 5 AM Christmas morning, every sleepy Sunday afternoon, through every speed bump, every pang of jealousy or boredom or uncertainty that came our way. I carried that lesson with me, and I carried it with me when she got sick. Even then in what can only be called the worst of times, all I could do was thank God, thank every God there is or ever was or will be and the whole universe and anyone else I could possibly thank that I saw that beautiful girl on that train platform and that I had the guts to stand up, walk over to her, tap her on the shoulder, open my mouth and speak.”

Ted kept believing in love and found it.

Even through heartbreak, in the end, the man who made it rain delivered a blue French horn to an apartment in Brooklyn.

Legendary.