Autumn 2008

 

How many times have I said I love Autumn? Too many. :)

Over at Picasa I posted a few pictures of myself and Mrs. Sixline in the gorgeous canyon just up the road from us.

Enjoy!

Mrs. Sixline's motivation

This is the last hurrah.

Final semester, and things are heating up.

I got a bit of a raise (yay!) and financially we'll be all right, so Mrs. Sixline doesn't have a job.

I've asked for her help in a lot of ways. You see, of all my quirks, one of the strongest ones is the inability to focus or relax when my abode is messy. I just can't do it. The trade off for my share of the housework is that I work crazy hours. I've been going into school later during the evenings and this week I'm doing about ten hour days. Mrs. Sixline has kept her end of the bargain beautifully; I've never seen the apartment in better shape. She's taken to watching "How Clean is Your House?" on BBC America (Thank you Kermit...) and now she's even scrubbing out little buildups of muck and grime that you don't normally do in your day to day rotations of cleaning.

I tip my hat to you, Mrs. Sixline. You're doing awesome.

A plug for Mrs. Sixline

I got us a swanky dinner date for Valentine's Day, but I can't remember where... I figured we can go to a chain restaurant any old day, so this is for a local place that's supposed to be nice. I have a surprise for her beyond that, but I'm not sure how I'm going to pull it off. I'll release details later, as I know that some of Mrs. Sixline's friends read this blog, and I prefer not to leak any details of the operation.

I really have to breathe a sigh of relief I'm with Mrs. Sixline. In some ways, I know she's lucky to have me. I do quite a bit of cleaning, I'm trying to be a righteous husband, and I'm doing my best to bring home the bacon.

I come up short far too often for my liking, and I don't depend on me the way she does. She's a rock. She's never disappointed me. I'm not talking about minor things, like towels on the floor, toothpaste caps, or cupboard doors being open. I'm talking about big things. When I need her. She's completely dependable, and stronger than I am. I feel like hanging my head in shame when I compare my track record to hers. I get teased because she's the only one who could put up with my personality and quirks, but I think it goes beyond that... She's able to support me and love me in the way I need.

Please, don't feel I take advantage of her. I'd hate to be guilty of that. It is true that I'm on the receiving end of a lot of things. (She's let me watch every Utah Jazz game this year.) Her example makes me want to do better. In a lot of ways, I've come very far, but... It just doesn't seem like it's enough. She deserves someone better, and I want that to be me.

Snow

I never thought I'd say this, but I really don't want it to snow. It's coming down right now, and I just shoveled the walk and driveway. Within 15 minutes it'll look like I didn't do anything at all. Since we've had such a mild winter this year I never bothered to buy ice melt. Now everyone in the valley will clean out the local suppliers and since I'm stuck at school all day I wonder if I'll be able to get some by the time the night is over.

Of course, St. Murphy, laughing at me from the Beyond, might not let it snow in the following weeks making my bag of ice melt a waste of money. I guess I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Or, we could buy some water softener. It says 'salt' on it, it's bagged the same way (size, weight) as ice melt, and very often it's stored on palettes neighboring the ice melt. Once Mrs. Sixline accidentally bought a bag, and we had it in the trunk for about a year before I finally just tossed it. Even though she got the wrong thing, it was pretty cool of her to take it upon herself to heft a 25lb bag of salt into the trunk thinking it would help me shovel the walk. Mrs. Sixline is pretty cool, ladies and gentlemen. She is pretty cool.