Jaminfrog

Chel started a new job this week at Merrill Lynch, and the schedule adjustment has been rough on all of us. Especially Sinatra the Siamese cat.

For me, I’m used to getting at least two phone calls during the day, asking me how my day is going or sharing something big that’s happened. Those have gone away now that she’s learning the ropes at a new company and new industry (securities lending, if that means anything to you).

But it’s been really tough on Sinatra, and we think he’s taken it out on himself. A typical day in Chel’s previous job meant she woke up around 7, then spent 30-45 minutes of quality cuddle time in bed with the kitty. Now that she’s in the finance world, she has to be at the office at 7:30, which means she wakes up at 6 and hustles out the door with no cat time.

The new schedule started on Monday, and when we got home on Wednesday we noticed a strange spot on Sinatra’s neck. We watched it for a couple days and decided to take him to our friendly neighborhood vet this morning because we were afraid it was ringworm or something crazy like that.

“No, this little infected spot is behavioral,” our vet told us. “He did this to himself. Has anything changed in your life lately?”

Yep, the new job. The vet gave us some antibiotics and cream, advised Chelsea not to quit her job to stay home with the cat, and assured us that everything would be fine in a week or two once Sinatra gets used to the schedule.

So I guess I just have to remind myself of that, too. Sinatra misses his morning cuddle time; I miss those phone calls. We just don’t need to beat ourselves up over it. 

You may remember the story about the time I got grilled for two hours in a class last semester, and then Chelsea found the professor’s email address and sent him an appreciative yet embarrassing note about how much of a growth opportunity that whole experience was for me.

Well, I figured that class would be my lowest grade of the semester, and given my track record last semester, that would have been pretty low. So I got the grade back on Friday, and I couldn’t believe it.

I made a freaking A. Which happens instead to be the highest grade I’ve made in law school. (The other A’s I’ve made have had “minuses” appended to them.)

Chel keeps telling me that I’d make higher grades if I talked to my professors more. But heck, I’ve got a better plan. I’m just going to give her their email addresses!

From my work in higher ed, I’ve gotten some first-hand experience with “helicopter parents” — well-meaning moms and dads who register their kids for classes, badger professors when their kids get bad grades…even move in with their precious kiddos to make sure they have a good college experience. This week, my sweet wife became a helicopter spouse. Continue Reading »

After launching BuyBenaniPhone.com and receiving more than $10 in donations (although I really only got $6.56 because of PayPal transaction charges), I decided on the day they started selling them to go with some work friends to the mall during lunchtime to see if people were actually lining up outside. At that point it was 100 people and counting.

To razz Chel about her persistent denial of my iPhone dreams, I called her (on my non-iPhone) and left her a message that we were stopping by the Apple store. She called me back and told me I should go ahead and get it.

“You’re yanking my chain,” I said, or something to that effect.

“No, you should get it. Congratulations on a great first year of law school!”

Suffice it to say that much of the rest of the afternoon was spent coming up with my purchase strategy. We had to go somewhere that night, so I knew that joining the line outside the store wasn’t the way to go. I decided to order it online promptly at 8 p.m. when it became available. With all the hype I just knew it would be sold out in a few minutes. But I got through, and my phone would be delivered within 2-4 weeks.

The next day while I was out running some weekend errands, I happened to drive by the Apple store again so I decided to stop in and see if I could try it out. There was a pretty big crowd milling about, but no line or anything, so I figured the store had to have sold out their allotment for the day. After a friendly Apple store rep gave a few of us a guided tour of the iPhone, the guy next to me announced that he was going to go get one, walked nonchalantly up to the counter, and checked out.

Huh. So they’re not sold out! I nonchalantly walked up to the counter and purchased my own birthday-slash-Christmas-slash-anniversary-slash-first year of law school gift. (And yes, I did cancel my online order.)

So the iPhone is great and probably the coolest gadget I’ve ever had (and that’s saying a lot). But it’s too bad we got one, because Anne let me know yesterday morning that the Kidd Kraddick morning show was giving away an iPhone to one lucky man. The catch: the wife had to call in and simply give up something of value to the guy. I called Chel (this time, on the iPhone) and left her a message that we missed out…that she could have won me an iPhone by giving something up.

She left me a joking message back that she did give something up. She gave up her dining room table!

That may not sound like much, but if you’ve talked with Chel about home decorating lately, you know that she wants nothing more than a nice dining room table. We had almost saved up for it, and then I came along with BuyBenaniPhone.

The cool thing I’m learning about marriage is that it’s full of opportunities to give and to serve. I’m blessed — beyond the iPhone — that my wife gives so much to me every day. I hope that I can find ways to give and to serve her even half as much. Hopefully that will include a dining table and chairs sometime soon.

But in the meantime, you can play with the iPhone if you come over for dinner — you just may have to sit on the floor.

I have an impressive track record of impulsively buying things that are fun to have, but I really don’t need. For some reason a little shopper in me gets obsessed with a particular thing and refuses to give up. Over the years I’ve collected a veritable hall of fame of impulse buys. Continue Reading »

Chel and I spent Sunday before Memorial Day on Lake Granbury with Alan and Jackie. We had a great time, and I actually got in the lake! (Don’t worry, I was wearing the maximum amount of life jackets allowed. I looked like a gigantic blow-up man.) We stayed to watch the Mavs game, another great win, and then headed back to Marydale to spend a nice Memorial Day of rest at home.

One cool thing about getting your first home is that, since you don’t have a ton of money anymore to go out and do things, you realize that you can go on a date in and around your new home that’s just as nice as going out on the town.

Take last night, for example. Our evening began in The Man Room, where we enjoyed a couple of games of billiards (I won both) as we split one of the 56 bottles of beer left over from our open house.

Then we moved on to dinner, which consisted of open house leftovers followed by a stop at the drive through Luby’s for some macaroni and cheese.

Next, since we don’t yet have a pool or spa in the backyard, we proceeded to visit a nearby apartment complex and make use of their fine facilities.

We capped the evening off by returning to home and swinging in the hammock as the sun went down. And to make it seem like we were staying in a fine hotel, we slept in the guest bedroom.

All in all, it was a perfect date. Tonight, I think we may have a date in the living room.

Chel’s theory is that bad things happen in threes. In the past week we’ve had two.

One, the giant tree in our backyard being blown in half and kindly propping itself up on our electric service line.

And two, Chelsea having a fender bender while exiting from one freeway to another. It was stop-and-go traffic, and when everyone else was stopped, she go-ed. Just minor damage to the chrome grill, so it could have been a lot worse.

But now I’m wondering what the third bad thing is. The tree service man discovered poison ivy growing in one of the bushes next to our driveway. Does that count? The cats knocked a potted plant off a ledge the other day. It was given to us as a housewarming gift, so is that bad enough? My knee hurts a lot lately. Can we make that one work? I’m hoping that one of those count. I’m not sure who keeps score on these bad things. I’d like to ask whoever that is, so I can rest easier.

Chelsea had a sleepless night last week thinking about the big move.

She couldn’t sleep because she was consumed with thoughts of painting our brown Ethan Allen dressers and bed set white. I was a little nervous about the whole concept, since the furniture was given to us by my mom and dad and it had been in the family almost as long as I have been. But I went for it, as long as she got permission from my parents when we visited my sister. My mom said it was our furniture to do with as we wanted, so the painting project began. Continue Reading »

Today is Chelsea’s 25th birthday! Marcy is starting the day out right by kidnapping her to take her to breakfast at Corner Bakery. Then Chel and I are going to celebrate by going to the David Gray concert tonight and then staying in a surprise location.

Last night, Chel, Momma Hud and I went to an early birthday dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack. We were expecting the typical “servers gather around the table and sing an embarrasing song in honor of your birthday while clapping excitedly” schtick, but we got something a little different. Our waiter announced to the restaurant that it was Chelsea’s birthday, and that she would be standing on her chair and singing happy birthday to herself. Luckily I caught it with my trusty Treo 650. American Idol, here we come!