International Women's Day

[Diazy 10]

Congratulations to all women!!!

[mox 298]

Yes, Happy IWD to all women who are not my ex-wife.

So yesterday, for the first time ever, I noticed special IWD boquet's at my local Safeway. I'm really surprised it's taken the floral industry this long to catch on.

[slim 1,525]

Congratulations to all women!!!

For what, being born without a #######?

I spent IWD getting yelled at again. No flowers "waiting" on her this morning so needless to say, that started the day off not so hot. We planned on waking up (she's been working late) and going for some fancy seafood and a couple beverages so I thought that was good enough. I thought wrong.

Anyway, after a few beverages and some delicious food, the mood lightened a little. Two dozen raw oysters really do act like an aphrodesiac!

Her buddies called her and they're hanging out, drinking and doing whatever it is Russian women do on IWD while their husbands are home on VJ. Good for them, blat.

[Brad and Vika 129]

Congratulations to all women!!!

For what, being born without a #######?

I spent IWD getting yelled at again. No flowers "waiting" on her this morning so needless to say, that started the day off not so hot. We planned on waking up (she's been working late) and going for some fancy seafood and a couple beverages so I thought that was good enough. I thought wrong.

Anyway, after a few beverages and some delicious food, the mood lightened a little. Two dozen raw oysters really do act like an aphrodesiac!

Her buddies called her and they're hanging out, drinking and doing whatever it is Russian women do on IWD while their husbands are home on VJ. Good for them, blat.

Rare form again slim!

[slim 1,525]

Rare form again slim!

Well, it just iritates the hell outta me sometimes. I don't know very many girls in their 20s who are driving new cars, eating seafood dinners and working PART TIME. Life can't be all that horrible, can it?

[Kotenochek 0]

Are you paying her car payments?)))

[slim 1,525]

No. She's actually paying her own car payments and 1/2 of the "community" bills so she is contributing. The part she misses is trips to Sam's Club or dinner out somewhere - things not in the monthly budget - and the fact that an extra $150 here and there really adds up. When she asks "why we not have extra money?" I try to explain that something like a nice seafood dinner on IWD pretty much wipes out the "extra money" for the month.

She has made significant improvements just in the last several months (working more.... kind of different when it's your own money!) when it comes to paying bills (on time) and planning weeks and months ahead in terms of the budget.

I found what really turned it around for us here (stopped the fights about money, for the most part) was I started to spend all my extra money on me. Things I wanted to do, places I wanted to go, etc. Then, when she would complain about us not having enough money to do the things she wanted to do I would break out the old budget book and show her that what she was contributing was not enough to support anything extra and whatever extra there was came directly from my hard work and I was going to use it as I saw fit. She wasn't happy that I never spent any money on her for anything so once again, I broke out the old budget book and said, "I spend a lot on you every month. Although, it doesn't look like flowers or new clothes or perfume, cosmetics, jewelry or any of that stuff. But you eat it. You feel it around you. You enjoy it when you're sleeping and not shivering or soaking wet. The money that I'm 'not spending on you' is actually off-setting what you should be paying for the rent, your car payment and insurance, our food, electricity, gas, cellphones, cable, phone, internet, etc. So, if you're not getting the flowers you think you should get, and you'd like for me to start buying them for you, all you have to do is cover the cost of the monthly budget. If you can cover 50% of the household expenses, that'll free up several hundred bucks a month that can be spent directly on you!"

Needless to say she figured out real quick that covering the costs wasn't all that hard when you work full time and you actually end up with.... wait a minute...... MORE MONEY than what you need to cover your budget so you have a little extra to do whatever you want with. Since she's been working more (couple months, maybe) there aren't daily "why we not have extra money?" conversations because she has extra money already and doesn't worry about mine.

Now if she'll only keep working full time.......