My car vs my wife's car.

I have a Caravan. I love it. I fell in love with the mini van years ago when my parents bought one. They literally bought a model the year they were introduced by Dodge. Now, I had always liked vans in general, and always wanted one. The mini van was nice because it; offered more window view than some vans, drove more like a car, and wasn't overly big. What I like about them is that you sit up a little higher than in a regular car, and they're roomy. Also, with a little adjustment you can haul LOTS of stuff. AND, they're great in the winter.

On the point of hauling, my wife and I have often taken advantage. Be it huge TV's, carpets, lumber, appliances, kids, whatever, we really like that you can go from seating 7 people to hauling camping gear for a small army in a matter of minutes.

Before getting her Vue, my wife has owned a small sedan. We occasionally swap cars if she has a need for the capacity. Of course, this is all well and good but I've often gotten my car back smelling of plants, fertilizer, and/or some kind of fast food.

Now, I'm no weirdo when it comes to my car. It gets me where I want to go, it's comfortable, and it's utilitarian. I don't obsess each scratch or stain or over all appearance. I've got better things to do. But, something peeved me some this past weekend.

My wife was doing a landscaping project for the neighborhood. As such, she needed to pick up plants and such for the project. I expected her to ask to use my car as it's older, but she didn't. If anyone has ever seen her car you know very well she's also not one to obsess over its looks. So, it came as a bit of a shock when I went to help her load some items to find she had lined every square inch of the cargo area with carpets and plastic tarp! Then, when she gets the small tiller we own she wants me to wrap the business end in a large garbage bag to keep the dirt contained!

GIrlwithanewcar says what? Excuse me? I couldn't believe it! She took more time and care to make sure she didn't "dirty" the inside of her car than she did to actually load it with the stuff she needed.

I see how this works.

Actually, she did redeem herself. She had to haul away all of the extra turf, roots, and shrubbery from the area she worked on and used her car for that. While she did try to contain the mess with boxes, dirt did get all over the place. So, I guess I can't be too critical.

She's likely at the car wash getting it all clean today, though.

Today's Babe

My wife, Jackie. It's her birthday today. In addition to being a babe, she's MY babe. Treat her nice tomorrow. If you make me mad, I'll let her kick the shit out of you.



Happy birthday, honey.

You're My Best Friend

First off, this is long over due. I guess I needed just the right moment and inspiration to dedicate a post . . .


to my wife.

Yep. You heard me. My wife. Married 22 years and we're still best of friends. Why?

My wife and I share many things in common. But of the more important components to our relationship is the core belief of personal responsibility. We're honest to others and ourselves. While we may not care what other people think from time to time, we care that people believe us and believe IN us.

We also make each other laugh. A lot.

Both of us can have a very dry sense of humor. Very dry. To a point that it gets us in to trouble. My wife can sell a dry joke all day long without wavering.

The other day we were discussing . . . some . . . uh, . . . people. I can't name names. But, we were discussing them in a very honest manner. VERY honest. Extremely honest. BRUTALLY honest. Sorry. You get it. Well, each time the other person made a comment it just got more and more snarky to a point that we both started laughing. Then my wife said something that almost put me in intensive care. Oh man . . . I was in bad shape. It took a good 10 minutes for me to recover.

This was just the other day. Today, I call my wife from work and ask her to turn on my computer at home so I can access it from work. I needed to check a file to get a phone number. I wasn't real sure where it was otherwise I would have just had my wife look for it. Well, when I logged on, I noticed my wife was reading an email. Again, I can't get in to specifics but it was in response to someone and something. Well, I started typing a reply from work on her reply. Once she figured out what was going on she, my wife, started typing things to me. We were, in effect, chatting. Well, it got rather naughty. Explicitly naughty. I was working hard to contain myself at work . . . while fearful someone might come to see what was going on with me. It was juvenile, but funny. I was giggling the whole time.

Huh. Maybe I should pick up some wine for her.

Anyway. I love you, honey. You make me happy. You make me laugh. You are my best friend.

The Show Must Go On!

No, not the Oscars, my girlie's birthday party! This weekend my girlie, who is now 8, celebrated her birthday in decadent style. She wanted a chocolate-themed birthday party . . . and sleep over! If you follow this blog you know this was supposed to happen last weekend, but thanks to my daughter's curse, she was sick and we had to post pone until this weekend. Well, everyone originally invited saw fit to squeeze Jamie in to their busy little schedules and so it was on. My girlie and 7 of her best buds . . . I mean, BFF's were about to get their party on.

So, I get sick. Really sick. Fever sick.

I think anyone who knows me knows that I take my daddying very seriously. So not being able to be a part of the preparations and potentially the celebration of my girlie birthday is heart wrenching. But, you gotta take care of number one first if you're to be of any good to anyone else. So, I had to sit this one out a bit.

Now, anyone who knows my wife knows there is no "half way", no "cutting corners", no "scaling down", no "do it the easy way". Nope. Nope. Nope. Doesn't matter if it's our wedding anniversary party or my daughters 8th birthday party, you go all out and make it special. Not that I disagree with that. But, when I do up a football party it's a bit different from how my wife does it. Yes, in most cases, thankfully so. But there are times when taking an easier approach to things doesn't lessen the enjoyment people get out of it.

She'll dispute that. And she'll be right. People notice the little things and it does add to everyone's enjoyment. One of the many reasons I love her to death.

Anyway. So, along come 8 girlies looking to party on. My wife had everything ready. All I had to do was enjoy it and at one point read a story. The girls did crafts, went outside and played in Jamie's playhouse, built a chocolate house, played some games, and ended the evening with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. They stayed up a bit past midnight just so so we could say it was the next day. They all slept like cute little rocks until about 7:30. Then, my wife made pancakes, they did chocolate fondue, and ended the morning learning the Oompa Loompa dance from the DVD. It was wonderful.

All the girls are a part of my wife's Brownie Troop so we both know them pretty well. Still, they were a great bunch of girls. No fighting, bickering, nothing. They all had fun and were a pleasure to have.

First today I'm feeling better and can help out by cleaning up a little. Very little. Jackie did most of that, as well.

I'm a lucky guy to be blessed with two wonderful girls in my life. I love you both very much.