Snubbed
2006-07-21, 1:11 p.m.

Day 698 Snubbed

Think I�ve mentioned that our 25th anniversary is coming up soon. 3 weeks and 4 days for those of us that are counting. Sent Cindy the URL for this place Esperanza Mansion and asked her to check it out. For those that didn�t click through, Esperanza Mansion is a Bed & Breakfast, with an associated hotel and a cruise boat that hosts lunch & dinner cruises. Situated on one of the Finger lakes here in western NY. (Keuka Lake to be exact) Hoity-Toity food too. A Caesar salad for an appetizer costs $8 for crying out loud. Her response? Nope.

That was it. One whole word. If she had said �nice�, or �interesting� or �can we afford it?� I�d have made reservations this morning. But �nope� doesn�t exactly inspire me to action. She�s hinted that she�d like one of those 3 stone anniversary bands. I�ve checked those out. To get something that totals in the 1 carat range, you�re talking well over $1K if you deal with someone you don�t know over the internet. I haven�t dared to wander into a local jewelry store to check things out. The sticker shock may be overwhelming. Of course, we do have a local store that boasts of cutting out the middle man and keeping their diamond prices low. One of them is within a mile of where I work. Maybe if I swapped the outer diamonds for the kids birthstones I could pull a few hundred out of the cost. Lest you think that�s a cheap way out, it�s been discussed as a possibility in the past � so I may yet entertain that option.

But.

There�s always one of those, isn�t there? I�m still struggling to justify the whole thing in my head. The last couple of years have certainly not been all sweetness and light. A fair share of the preceding 23 weren�t either, but we still made it through. There was the 6 or so years I spent at night school, leaving her to do the lions share of child rearing. I was still plenty involved, especially in the helping with homework parts and sports, but most evenings I was at school. There were also the 4 years she worked as a waitress evenings, leaving me to do the child rearing. And the kids were younger (needier) then. Lordy. There�s LOTS of stuff you go through in 25 years of being married, some is fantastic, some is not so pretty.

But.

(There it is again) In the what have you done for me lately category, there ain�t a lot of stuff in the plus column. Should I even be concerned about that? Shouldn�t I look at the last 25 years as a whole, not weight everything by the last couple of years? If I get the gift that�s more or less expected, that may preserve the status quo for a bit. Whoopee. If I don�t get it, well, things will certainly not be improving anytime soon. Conditions might even deteriorate at an accelerated rate.

So. Think I�ll err on the side of at least maintaining the status quo. Mostly because I sent Cindy another email asking her about her response to the whole Esperanza Mansion dealie. She said she did look, it was quite nice, but maybe save it for sometime in the future. (Big parenthetical � I sent her the link to the place yesterday afternoon. Hadn�t gotten her response on it till this morning. That�s when I sent the inquiry about my first inquiry. It�s not like we don�t ever talk (much) � this one just all transpired over the wonder that is the internet.)

A diversion.

Go here: phlegmfatale and scroll down to her July 20 entry. At the bottom of that entry there is a link to a video. Click that link and have a listen. Well, read. It�s closed captioned. Illustrates a great point of view in the whole situation between Muslims, Jews, and Christians.
Works for me. I thought the speaker made a great point. Got a bit of courage too, saying what she did on a mid-east TV station in a room full of Muslim men. Hope she made it out ok.

That also puts my own tribulations in perspective, doesn�t it?

Updated stats:
Weight start: 206.5 on 1/1/06 (265.0 on 1/15/05)
Current weight 186.25 on 7/15/06 (IT MOVED!!)
Next weigh in: 7/22/06

New target � 8/22/06 to be at 180 (my 2 year quit anniversary)

The Keep on Truckin goal: (idea stolen shamelessly from Marn�s Big Adventure)
Miles at speed 7/20/06: 563.71
Miles with cooldown: 619.93
Target for 2006: 1000 miles
Plus 45+ miles biking so far.

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