Tag Archives: marriage

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Beemer me up…

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The used car shopping continues. Miles upon miles of traveling only to be disappointed by condition or mechanical problems.

Funny part of this saga? We met up with a friend of ours on the journey who happens to sell cars on the side. When the husband told him what we were doing he gave me a strange look and said, “No offense, but I know money isn’t the issue. Why don’t you just buy new?”

To which I rolled my eyes, pointed, and said “Ask him”.

That launched my husband into his usual diatribe about how new cars are an over inflated rip off that depreciate as soon as you drive them off the lot. Then he got started on the car salesman two step. You know the dance… spend half an hour dickering on price only to be told to have a seat while he talks with his manager. Husband hates the whole process.

Because really, used car salesmen are so much better.

🤣

Our last stop of the day was a dealership almost 2 hours from home.

I immediately spotted the car I wanted him to buy.

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Don’t recognize the logo?

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Yeah.

Just a snazzy little runabout in which to do the weekly grocery shopping. Did it cost more than our first house? Sure. But money’s not an issue remember.

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Someone came in right behind us and put a down payment on this thing. To which I thought… what a giant waste of hard earned dollars… but hey, whatever floats your boat.

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This was the vehicle we came to see and might seriously be a contender.

To be continued…

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And so it begins….

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Yes, after owning his current BMW sedan for barely 2 years my husband has decided he wants a new vehicle.

And by new… I mean my husband’s version of new which is usually 20 years old. He’s rough on vehicles and puts a lot of miles on them quickly so while I buy new, he doesn’t. Which is why he always wants a different one every few years. He plum wears them out.

His current car is a 2006 and since he’s on a BMW kick, the next one has to be as well. Tired of him constantly buying and selling I persuaded him to go a little newer this time. Ya know… preferably in the last decade. It was a struggle but I convinced him to draw the line at 2014. Nothing older.

I also leaned heavily on the idea of an SUV. River’s bad knee has had enough of climbing out of low slung rides.

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We found this blue one..

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And took her for a spin.

But the porridge was too hot.

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We found this brown one and took her for a spin.

But the porridge was too cold.

We drove for 7 hours that day randomly hitting car dealers and private sellers. The result? Those two.

Apparently the BMW X3’s are a rare breed in our part of the world.

The search continues…

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Payback.

26 Comments

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I spent 5 hours following my husband from store to store looking for a new weed whacker last week.

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Don’t believe the people who tell you men hate to shop. When he’s looking for a new toy for himself? My guy will shop until I drop. We hit at least 7 different lawn and garden sections and then went back to the very first place we stopped so he could buy the very first one he saw.

And then?

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The man who owns a giant zero turn tractor and four push mowers… yes, four. Two of them self propelled. … started looking at new push mowers.

For me.

The person who doesn’t want one.

It was at that point I said enough… and made him take me for a nice late lunch.

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A fresh blueberry mojito was a good way to start.

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Every time I see this old tool art installation I want my husband to do something like it in the man cave.

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And every time, he says no.

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To start… it was butternut squash soup for the husband and some fabulous dry rub barbecue shrimp for moi.

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A basil limeade later?

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An amazing Bolognese with fresh pasta and a lamb, beef and pork ragu. It was so good I didn’t even notice what the husband ate.

Well worth 5 hours of tool shopping.

😉

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So much for that.

30 Comments

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In case anyone was wondering why I haven’t posted about the husband’s clean up the crap filled cellar project lately, there’s a reason.

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And that reason is him getting bored and dropping it like a hot rock.

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Only a third of the ceiling was completed… and it was at that point I think he realized he was in over his head.

Literally and figuratively.

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So while there are areas you can see the floor….

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It’s still a junk filled nightmare.

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A tearful goodbye.

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After 13 years of faithful service… it’s time to say goodbye to our beloved washer and dryer.

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My husband (who DOES NOT shop for anything other than antiques) stood in line outside, in the cold, at 2:00am on Black Friday in 2010 to purchase this ( ultra fancy for it’s day) set as a Christmas present for yours truly.

I didn’t need or even want a new set at the time, but it was almost half price and he was thrilled with the deal.

Fast forward 13 years and the dryer (otherwise known as Lord Dudley’s bird watching perch) is kaput. It’s been acting up for the past few months… running one day but not the next… and after having two repairman unable to find the problem, it’s time to bid them a fond farewell.

So we shopped.

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(The husband’s good friend just got Covid so his mask paranoia is temporarily back.)

After checking the big box stores and the small mom and pop stores, we played Goldilocks and chose a set from a medium sized Maine store.

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We could have taken them home today, but of course I didn’t want blue.

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So we special ordered the graphite gray.

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Billed as “ The smartest washer in it’s class” I wondered what that entailed. A diploma? A degree? A doctorate?

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Turns out smart means Alexa…

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Sorry. I don’t care how smart it is…. I’m not talking to my washing machine.

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Progress? How can you tell…

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Another area of the crap mausoleum cellar is being cleared in preparation for work and there’s one extremely heavy item in the way.

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This time, I can’t even blame my husband.

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The rather odd looking wood stove was here when we moved in 21 years ago, and here it has stayed. We tried selling it at a yard sale years ago but there were no takers. I’m guessing if we ever sell our house? It will be our parting gift to the new owners as well. Why break tradition.

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Farther along there’s a large pile of tires. Do they… or did they ever…. fit one of our vehicles? No. But they’re resting on a nice fluffy piece of quilt stuffing so at least they’re comfortable.

🥴

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In keeping with the old, rusty, inoperable and weighs a ton theme? Another adding machine.

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Buried in the back.. next to the extra refrigerator we didn’t need but he bought anyway.. is a nice old toboggan. Why? Just because he could.

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Does the husband have a few old Life magazines?

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I’d like to tell you that’s all of them.

I really would.

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Looking back, the far right corner is done.

Not that you can see it through all the junk of course.

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The early morning kernel hunt.

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My husband is a late night snacker. No matter how large and satisfying a dinner I serve him, he always has room for popcorn.

And since we’ve established he hasn’t worked out the proper bowl to kernel ratio of his new air popper…

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It won’t surprise you to learn that every morning when I walk into the kitchen I begin to search for strays.

Stray unpopped kernels on the floor that I find with my bare feet…

Stray unpopped kernels that land in my cutlery caddy…

Stray popped kernels that fly into the sink and behind the microwave…

But this morning?

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It seems the bird caught one.

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🤣

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Back at it.

22 Comments

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After an almost two week hiatus from working in the crap cave cellar… for reasons that will be discussed later….the husband was back on track.

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The far right corner was complete so the ceiling work started moving outward.

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I was called in to help numerous times because the price of plywood went up again and my spouse switched from the higher grade to the rougher stuff which was much harder to work with. Imagine if you will…. me, with my bad knee climbing on the step stool and trying to hold a sheet of wood in place over my head.

It was not a pretty sight. Nor a quiet one. I never realized there were so many colorful ways to say hurry up before I was roped in to helping.

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In between curses, I checked out his treasure. An old Bell and Howell movie projector, those horrible figural whisky bottles people used to collect in the ‘70s, a rather nice Italian pepper grinder and another rooster.

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Skeeter Skoot? I can only imagine the horrible chemicals they wanted us to spray ourselves with then back then.

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And finally… it looks like my husband will be giving classes on junk collecting. Reserve your seat now, it’s sure to be a popular seminar.

🥴

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The motherload continued…

27 Comments

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A few more oddities from our antique store stroll.

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Because you never know when you’ll need a personal, portable steam engine on wheels. It can be yours for a mere $4,000.

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I have no explanation for that.

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Proof positive everything can be made into a lamp… whether it should be is another issue entirely.

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We almost can home with this corn cutter.

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The fact that it was on sale required closer examination.

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I was all for putting this little dude in the man cave/Barn Mahal but the husband disagreed.

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Truth in advertising is a rare thing.

🤣

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Antique motherload.

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Still in search of that last vintage beer/alcohol crate for my vinyl, the husband and I headed to a massive antique mall in Oxford.

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And I have to say we were blown away. Parts of it had the normal antique mall booths with multiple vendors and then there was this room.

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Which was really more of a museum. Those vintage hand painted sleds were da bomb.

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There were some truly fabulous items.

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With fabulous prices to accompany them. We spent hours just in that one room. And then we moved on..

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My husband probably has a dozen of these old glass water bottles and frames, but that never stops him from looking for number 13.

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I nixed the idea of hanging that on the Barn Mahal door.

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Husband wanted to buy all these Trump dollars and use them to start our next fire, but I couldn’t stand the thought of that man riding all the way home with us even if I knew he’d end up in the ash pile.

To be continued..

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