How the heck do you tell a man, "No, you may not be the man you've longed to be for ten years and show your wife how much you appreciate her"?

Assuming there was a decent amount left over after the bills were paid, maybe put X in a savings account and use the rest to satisfy some pent-up splurging urges?

What Teppy said about guiding his purchases (and at least he's looking for bargains -- I mean, $50 on a diamond wristwatch you'd never wear is preferable to a $5000 diamond etc., for what that's worth), with the addition to guide him toward buying a little something for himself, too?

I always got the impression that your DH is well aware that you prefer cutty, blade-y things to sparkly, gem-y things.

In the Bronze Age world that is my husband's mind, the cutty, blade-y things are everyday necessities, and when there's loot to be had, you shower your woman with glittery stuff. I may have gone a bit gaga over things like the Hope Diamond and the Crown Jewels and piles of sparkly things that have crossed my path. Shinies.

And anyway, that .22 pistol was for me. Sig Sauer. The kind Scully uses, and gun shop owners aren't impressed when a woman's shopping criteria include "Oh, that's what Scully has!"

with the addition to guide him toward buying a little something for himself, too?

Oh, that hasn't been a problem. He's got a new laptop.

Cereal:

The cat nearly bought us a boat, though. Note to cat owners--do not leave bidding sites open and go to the bathroom when you have a cat who walks on keyboards. That would have been a tricky conversation to have with the people and the $300,000 Buy It Now purchase Amon Ra nearly made.

Catlike Bidding Detected

Sigh. Our flight was just cancelled due to weather. I'm on hold with the airline.

I remember hearing stories of babies being born with problems because their mothers had caught rubella when they were pregnant.

My exgirlfriend had that happen--her mom was pregnant with her and got rubella. They were afraid she would be severely retarded, deaf, and blind. Luckily, she is very smart, but she is basically blind, and has a lot of problems with her ears. And a lot of allergies, but that may not be related.

Rubella is a risk, even if you've been vaccinated.

Signed, discovered after first prenatal blood draw that I'd lost my immunity. (The visiting nurse after Lillian was born said she has the same thing happen to her on a regular basis and basically has to get a booster every five years.)

discovered after first prenatal blood draw that I'd lost my immunity.

And this is why we want ALL the kiddos to get vaccinated--more herd immunity for all of us!!

Anti-vaccination mindsets boggle me. But considering my once active, two time WWII veteran grandfather spent 35 years as a quadriplegic after his bout with polio and my father lost 50% of the muscle mass in his legs from the same disease, I may be a wee bit biased.

Connie, cat bidding makes me laugh. And I'm sorry that your DH is going a bit overboard, but I agree with Teppy that he may just need to do this right now. Again, I am so happy for you that you have finally gotten this money and are able to pay off debts and have some fun.

Aimée, I am so sorry that you're having such a rotten time with your boss and are generally so overwhelmed. Does it help that we love you a lot?

sj, airline~ma to you.

So is anyone else just completely done with this week already? Because I really am. I have a pile of creative "Lost Books" of the Odyssey to read and grade, but I feel utterly incapable of doing anything but staring sullenly at the computer screen. March has really done me in.

We're not leaving until tomorrow now.