This journal is somewhat incomplete because of 2 weeks worth of posts I've made, but here goes.

First of all, if you own a mac and use Safari, it has built in spell checking in the form fields...just discovered this. Very cool.

Afternoon
So today, W was remodeling the kitchen for the 8th and last day. So I went to the local spa and bought a certificate for a manicure-pedicure so that she would get the ache rubbed out of her hands and feel like a girl again. I gave it to her and let her know how I appreciated her hard work and this in no way had any strings attached. I also dropped some money I saved on a big tv. In the past, I would never indulge in spending money on something that unhealthy, but she explained to me that she really enjoys TV time at the end of the day to wind down. I thought we would both enjoy it. The surprises went over well. But here's the problem with doing "expert-level" gestures...they set you up to want "expert-level" reciprocation. She didn't make good eye contact with me tonight and seemed distant by ignoring me when I sat close to her...basically she was tired and I knew it but she also made a reference to wanting to keep working on the house. This, in combination with the non-verbals, made me think that her priorities were in the wrong place and a hoplessness starting trickling in. Especially after I felt like we had made some good progress in a few areas.

At bedtime, she could see that I was clearly "bothered" looking. She kept pushing me to explain despite me telling her that it was probably just crazy. But her persistence led me to explain my hurt and frustration. For those who follow my posts, this will sound like a violation of one of my main principles of staying cool. For those new here, keep reading. I'll post them in the next post.

After talking a bit and explaining my feelings, I calmed down and we had a good talk again. I asked her if she had any suggestions of how I should handle situations like this. Her reply was nice....she said that when our D6 is angry, that she will voluntarily take a time-out or ask for a hug. I concluded that those were good ideas but it's also nice to share a little talking time together. While buying a TV is sort of a 180 for me, I still hate loving it.