Irritating BS your SO does

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

I'll remind myself never to let Julian near my aged grandmama with a steak knife.

Back to topic: unlike any normal, red-blooded Englishman, my husband actually prefers junky own-brand white bread to a proper loaf of crusty white. He'll eat it (and he sure did enjoy the loaf I brought back from England in March), but his preferred brand is -- oh sweet baby Jesus -- Ralphs ECONOMY brand white bread. I cannot express the shame I feel putting it in my shopping trolley. I hide it under healthier foods and then go through the self-checkout rather than face my fellow Burbankians when I have to buy it.

[JulianMelissa 52]

I'll remind myself never to let Julian near my aged grandmama with a steak knife.

Back to topic: unlike any normal, red-blooded Englishman, my husband actually prefers junky own-brand white bread to a proper loaf of crusty white. He'll eat it (and he sure did enjoy the loaf I brought back from England in March), but his preferred brand is -- oh sweet baby Jesus -- Ralphs ECONOMY brand white bread. I cannot express the shame I feel putting it in my shopping trolley. I hide it under healthier foods and then go through the self-checkout rather than face my fellow Burbankians when I have to buy it.

Well you did say he's from Yorkshire.

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

Well you did say he's from Yorkshire.

Are you implying my sainted husband is a skinflint? If so, you'd be right. I'm sure with you, Julian, it would be artisanal breads from specialty bakers. Please hurry up with your K1 and impending marriage to Melissa so you can start taking care of me in the manner to which I am entitled.

[Empress of Groovy 373]

My man has a weakness for the Jumbo Jack. It is very strange.

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

Bruce loves Del Taco. Anything with "queso sauce" is apparently delicious.

[Nik+Heather 121]

I think Nik and I are mutually dissatisfied with how things went relating to driving and learning his way around the city. Initially, Nik wanted a GPS device, but I'm such a tight fist, I said "But hunny, Phoenix isn't like any city in the UK. All the streets go in straight lines, and intersect other streets perpendicular to them at regular intervals in quite a friendly grid! Once you know which direction to go, it doesn't matter the specific streets you can get anywhere with no problem!"

The end of the story is that (at least it seems) he does seem much more comfortable going out on his own in an ever expanding radius away from home, but it wasn't achieved without some heartburn... I was going to go intoit, but the post was like 3 pages long - I think another peeve of his might be that I talk to much "lecturing" he says (I'm just tring to be a good USC whose job it is to help him learn about his new home/city!), but he copes by tuning me out, which is a pet peeve of mine!! 7 months on, he's going places on roads we've never driven together, so I count it as success, and hope I contributed at least a little.

I'm always trying to tell him about this or that place, endeavoring to put some context on the surroundings ("lecturing"). Naturally, it just goes in one ear and out the other, and then I get a "why do I even bother!" feeling. I think I get it from my father. He's does the same point out and comment about everything we pass on the road type as well. But as I said, we seem to have at least gotten to the desired results now. He looks up how to get places on mapquest, and has been going on to places 20+ miles away on his own for jobs related things. Maybe the impetus for his independence is that he doesn't have to listen to me jabbering on the whole way there!

On the bright side, we don't have any top sheet issues. He finds it so warm here that all he wants is the top sheet, and if I'm not warm enough, I'm welcome to put a blanket on - over my side only! He also set his alarm once, and got such a bad reaction from me after being startled awake by an alarm so loud it could wake the dead (for realz!!!) that he hasn't since. Now I wake him up when it's necessary.

I've also introduced him to all of my vice foods, and he's taken to them like a duck to water - Buffalo wings, Taco bell, etc. There are a few things that he likes and I don't and vice versa, but on the whole, we have as similar tastes in food as any two people could. We have gone on a couple of quests in the store for just the right sort of thing - for example, we tried a couple of different types of baked beans until we found some which were an acceptable substitute for Heinz baked beans (Vegitarian Bush's - if you're wondering).

Edited May 11, 2010 by Nik+Heather

[Rob and Jill 82]

Surely you mean Worcester, aka Woostah

Maybe, possibly. All I think is I can't say Worchesterrrrrsshiiirree Sauce either, so I don't. If I can't pronounce it , I shouldn't have to learn to spell it!!!

startled awake by an alarm so loud it could wake the dead

There is another way to be woken up? My two alarm clocks are not aware of this...neither am I. XD

Edited May 12, 2010 by Rob and Jill

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

I'm not letting this one die, let alone fall off the front page.

Here's yesterday's irritation: he had me drive his car to Target since he had taken some medication that made him drowsy. Can't remember the last time I drove his car. He opened up the glove box to get something out of it, and for some reason I asked him, "Do you have the most up to date insurance card in there?" He dug around and pulled out the registration. "No, the insurance card." "What does that look like?" he asked me. "Like a sheet of paper that says 'Geico' on the top and has our names on it, and the details of the car and our cover."

Blank stare.

More digging. With a smile, he hands a card over to me. It expired on January 16th.

"You have been driving around with an expired insurance card for 4 months? Really?"

"But... but... that's YOUR job! I can't possibly be expected to remember how to do this! I'm the immigrant!"

Let us put aside for a moment that he is the named driver on the insurance. Wouldn't you check from time to time? GAH!

[Jewel-8 21]

"But... but... that's YOUR job! I can't possibly be expected to remember how to do this! I'm the immigrant!"

Let us put aside for a moment that he is the named driver on the insurance. Wouldn't you check from time to time? GAH!

Yes, I am the one responsible for the cars also. My husband can't be bothered to remember when oil needs to be changed. He claims men have horrible memories and mine is so much better. I'm sure that's not it. He seems to have an inability to get the car to the shop unless I get pissed at him. And asking him to PAY for the work to be done even though he's the one driving the car? Forget it. Now... where is my receipt for my husband?

[thongd4me 69]

She's a great cook and I politely try to ask her to make less,

but the result is that both of us have "ballooned" in the first

few months that she's been here.

She keeps on explaining that this or that food will help you

lose weight. My philosophy is the "RFD" - refrigerator-free-diet.

You have to suck it up and not shovel it in.

Yesterday I think there was a major breakthrough because

I think she finally realized that we both will have to eat less.

Normally she is running here or there because she had a very

demanding job in Thailand. Coming home to a 3-course dinner

is great for the ego the first few times, but then, alas, reality

has to settle in...

[JulianMelissa 52]

"But... but... that's YOUR job! I can't possibly be expected to remember how to do this! I'm the immigrant!"

Let us put aside for a moment that he is the named driver on the insurance. Wouldn't you check from time to time? GAH!

Shoot me please if I ever use this excuse. But this does bring up a similar irritation. Melissa is hopeless when it comes to organisation. It wouldn't surprise me in the least to learn that the insurance documents in her (*ahem* ) new car are expired. She was supposed to have assembled all of our 'proof of relationship' documents, but when it came time she had misplaced them all, and then she still had to delay sending it because she only realised she had forgotten the photos whilest queuing at the Post. It took days for her to find them again. I've lost count of the times she's almost had her utilities turned off because the whole concept of paying for services rendered had slipped her mind, and forget about her remembering an appointment, just bloody well forget it. It is absolutely maddening sometimes.

[TracyTN 237]

You might be surprised at the things you prefer Melissa to handle when you get here simply because you don't know the 'procedure'. Hubby is a very self sufficient person but has simply had to defer to me sometimes until he understood what's what.

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

Shoot me please if I ever use this excuse. But this does bring up a similar irritation. Melissa is hopeless when it comes to organisation. It wouldn't surprise me in the least to learn that the insurance documents in her (*ahem* ) new car are expired. She was supposed to have assembled all of our 'proof of relationship' documents, but when it came time she had misplaced them all, and then she still had to delay sending it because she only realised she had forgotten the photos whilest queuing at the Post. It took days for her to find them again. I've lost count of the times she's almost had her utilities turned off because the whole concept of paying for services rendered had slipped her mind, and forget about her remembering an appointment, just bloody well forget it. It is absolutely maddening sometimes.

May I remind you Julian, that I didn't forget my current husband's insurance documentation. I stress the word "current."

[JulianMelissa 52]

May I remind you Julian, that I didn't forget my current husband's insurance documentation. I stress the word "current."

Duly noted. See my pm.

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

Shoot me please if I ever use this excuse. But this does bring up a similar irritation. Melissa is hopeless when it comes to organisation. It wouldn't surprise me in the least to learn that the insurance documents in her (*ahem* ) new car are expired. She was supposed to have assembled all of our 'proof of relationship' documents, but when it came time she had misplaced them all, and then she still had to delay sending it because she only realised she had forgotten the photos whilest queuing at the Post. It took days for her to find them again. I've lost count of the times she's almost had her utilities turned off because the whole concept of paying for services rendered had slipped her mind, and forget about her remembering an appointment, just bloody well forget it. It is absolutely maddening sometimes.

Julian -

Does Melissa ever do anything right?