August 06, 2003
Ten Years, Baby!entry,
A cool thing happened on Monday. I was talking to Sandra about Schlock Mercenary business expenses, because I'd just purchased a new drawing table, and wondered what impact it had. She told me that the Schlock Mercenary Checking Account had plenty of money to cover it.
This was cool because I had no idea that there even WAS such an account.
When she told me how much was IN the account, however, I realized that my trip to San Diego would suck that beyond dry as soon as the credit card bill came due.
I said so.
Sandra then told me that she'd tallied up the reciepts I'd brought home, and had already transferred the money from Schlock to the account we use to pay off the credit cards.
Okay, so I owe a big, schlocky "Thank you!" to all the schlockers out there who've donated or bought merchandise, but the king kudos go to Sandra who has managed that money incredibly effectively.
As of Tuesday, August 5th, Sandra and I have been married for ten years. Thus, on Tuesday, intoxicated with the heady gratitude of profitability, I got all spontaneous and decided to skip work and do something nice for her on our tenth anniversary.
Profitability aside, we're not made of money, and so I quickly decided AGAINST running to the mall and impulse-purchasing some fifty-dollar-whatsit that would be all femmy and lovey-dovey, and which would ultimately end up garnering more dust than gratitude. My mind awhirl with low-cost, high-impact possibilities, and my mouth achew with a Sausage McGriddle, I turned the car around and headed back towards home... via the same drive-through I'd hit not five minutes earlier.
That's right... my anniversary present to my wife for 10 years of loving devotion, for a decade of up-putting beneath a load of my crap, for years of excellent business and household management, and for bearing four of the smartest and best-looking children on the planet was breakfast from McDonald's.
The best part is that I came in with the bag of McGriddles and her face lit up with genuine delight. I guess the secret to a happy marriage lies somewhere between making sure the thought counts, and being easy to please.