A hard, rare metal under standard conditions when uncombined, tungsten is found naturally on Earth only in chemical compounds. It was identified as a new element in 1781, and first isolated as a metal in 1783. Its important ores include wolframite and scheelite. The free element is remarkable for its robustness, especially the fact that it has the highest melting point of all the non-alloyed metals and the second highest of all the elements after carbon.

Still here? Good.

Look at that nice mane of hair. And LovelyWife’s hair is not bad either.

Sixteen years ago LovelyGirlfriend became LovelyWife. This is our Tungsten anniversary. Like Tungsten, being married 16 years is a hard and rare thing. Like Tungsten, we are remarkable for our robustness, and I have a really high melting point.

LovelyWife likes to set things on fire (that’s the carbon reference) including my heart.

And that’s a W.

Happy Anniversary Honey! XXX

To summarize, a vacation is something you do to relax. A trip is something you do to learn things, fulfill a childhood dream, learn new things, visit a new country from North to South and East to West, climb a mountain…

Some examples:

• Spending the summer enjoying the pool in your backyard. (vacation)
• Spending one week camping on a deserted Island. (trip)
• Climbing Mount Everest. (trip)
• Going to Scotland for two weeks, visiting 18 distilleries and driving 2,500 miles. (trip)
• Spending one week in a five star all-inclusive resort in Cuba. (vacation)
• Renting a cottage for the summer. (trip)
• Going to Italy for a month with the kids. (trip)

In order to know if you’re planning a trip or a vacation, picture yourself doing the thing you are going to do. Now picture yourself coming back home after having done the thing you planned to do. Picture yourself dropping luggage in your hallway. Now read this sentence out loud:

“I could totally use a week to rest from this!”

If you can see yourself saying something like this, you’re planning a trip. Not a vacation.

I must be extremely clear on this point: There is absolutely nothing wrong about planning a trip. I think trips are defining moments in my life, and I’m glad I’m planning / doing them. I think going to Scotland was truly the trip of a lifetime.

However, it was not a vacation.

There is something inherently devastating about thinking that you’re going to go on a vacation only to discover that you’re really going on a trip. There are also a few people that I know very very well *cough* LovelyWife *cough* that can’t tell the difference between a trip and a vacation. Those people *cough* LovelyWife *cough* would most likely have this list:

• Spending the summer enjoying the pool in your backyard. (doing nothing)
• Spending one week camping on a deserted Island. (vacation)
• Climbing Mount Everest. (vacation)
• Going to Scotland for two weeks, visiting 18 distilleries and driving 2,500 miles. (vacation)
• Spending one week in a five star all-inclusive resort in Cuba. (spending money to do nothing)
• Renting a cottage for the summer. (vacation)
• Going to Italy for a month with the kids. (vacation)

As you can probably guess, planning something to do as a family for the summer in our house is the constant source of headaches and arguments, normally ending in one of us saying “We’ll do what you want LovelyWife”. It always starts the same way: “What are we doing for vacations this summer?”. Then we’ll each list things that we’d like to do on post-its. It’ll inevitably end up looking like this:

If you didn’t guess yet, I use blue post-its.

So to my LovelyWife I say this:

Even when life with you is far from a vacation; you’ll remain now and forever, the trip of my lifetime. XXX

Because you know that I could totally use a week to rest from this.

“I’m going to cook some bacon for breakfast. I’m hesitating between using the blowtorch and sticking the slices in the toaster to cook it. What do you think I should do?”

“How about just using a pan?” I reply.

“Well if you want to do it then…”

This is how my wife asks me to cook bacon. Come to think of it, this is pretty much how she asks me to do anything, really. She knows that if I get scared enough, I’ll step in and do it for her, so she doesn’t lose a finger or set the house on fire – again – or both.

“I’m going to take out the trash. Should I wear my roller blades to go down the stairs or should I use my bare foot to stomp on those shards of glass?”

“I’m going to change that electrical socket. Can you pass me that bucket of water and those tinfoil gloves?”

“I’m going to shovel the driveway. Let me put on my bathing suit first or should I wear this snorkel?”

“I’m cleaning the bathroom. Do we have any battery acid left?”

“I’m going to empty the dishwasher. I’ll just put on those boxing gloves and blindfold myself first. The red or green blindfold?”

“Time to clean the oven. Do you use regular matches or the extra long ones to ignite the lighter fluid?”

“I’ll update my iPad. Where’s the hammer and chisel?”

“Of course I can drive the kids to school. The break pedal is on the left, right?”

Notice how the Angel is… uncomfortable.

You can see a few more pics on Flickr.

]]> http://lesombre.ca/2010/12/14/weekend-update-update/feed/ 6 http://lesombre.ca/2010/10/29/what-is-the-secret-to-15-years-of-marriage/ http://lesombre.ca/2010/10/29/what-is-the-secret-to-15-years-of-marriage/#comments Fri, 29 Oct 2010 04:33:58 +0000 LeSombre http://lesombre.ca/?p=4079 Continue reading →]]> A few days ago I wrote about my impending doom upcoming 15th wedding anniversary.

Robin asked: “What is the secret to 15 years of marriage?” To me it’s pretty easy:

We met when we were pretty young,

and went to a couple of costumed parties.

Moved in together and got a cat.

Had a few little mishaps,

Some of them a little more serious than others.

We graduated from the university,

and then got married.

I hit it off with my Favorite Mother In Law,

and also with my Favorite Father In Law.

LovelyWife was very happy.

Eventually we got pregnant,

had a daughter,

who looks just like her mom,

see what I mean?

Then we had a son,

who – thankfully – also looks like her mom.

We fed the kids,

they loved each other,

their mom made them laugh,

and sometimes bathed them.

The kids grew up loving each other (and juice),

we took vacations together,

and family pictures.

That’s it. The secret is that there’s no secret. But if I can offer one tiny insight into our life it would be this: we do everything passionately. We laugh, we fight, we cry, we love, we live. Passionately.

And if you asked my LovelyWife, she would probably say that the secret to 15 years of marriage is to never ever under any circumstances post pictures of your pregnant wife on the Internet.

And she’d be pretty passionate about it too.

]]> http://lesombre.ca/2010/10/29/what-is-the-secret-to-15-years-of-marriage/feed/ 21 http://lesombre.ca/2010/10/25/one-month/ http://lesombre.ca/2010/10/25/one-month/#comments Mon, 25 Oct 2010 04:00:06 +0000 LeSombre http://lesombre.ca/?p=4054 Continue reading →]]>

In one month, I’ll be celebrating my 15th wedding anniversary.

Online sources say that it’s the crystal anniversary. Sounds like a great opportunity to get my LovelyWife those awesome Roulette Scotch glasses that she loves so much, doesn’t it? From their website:

Roulette is a unique collection of whiskey tumblers. Hand made in Germany, this crystal glass is so perfectly crafted that it effortlessly spins on its axis, like a roulette wheel does on the casino’s playing table. Almost ‘magic’ to watch, it permits a gentle swirling and therefore a gradual extraction of the deepest aromas of this noble liqueur. The currently available 5 different styles will be gradually joined by 5 more, to create a truly amazing and collectors sought gallery of stunningly beautiful glasses.

I already have She already has the #2 and #4.

It’s amazing that she stayed with me this long, isn’t it?

• Mac Daddy: After almost 30 years as a PC, I’m going to the dark side. It started with an iPhone last October, then a iPad in June and now I am getting this soon. That is, as soon as I can make my way in a store without fighting off hundreds of people playing poker right there in the Apple store. What is wrong with those people? Who goes to a computer store to play poker? Anyways, I’m still hesitant about going for the 2.8GHz Intel Core i5 for 300$ more than the 3.2GHz Intel Core i3. Any advice greatly appreciated.

In pure Call of Cthulhu tradition, I’ll keep the last bullet for myself for when the madness finally returns from her business trip and notices she can’t get in the house.

“Ewglu phln’slghn hngl’wi. Krha’gr br’clnuilha wgah’rly’ueh v’glua n’gl.“

Oh wait. I just looked and only TWO of you commented on that brilliant post. What gives? I’ll give you a minute to read the other post, comment and come back here.

All right, moving along.

Yesterday was CutieDaughter’s first full day of school. LovelyWife dropped her at school in the morning – that backpack was so heavy I almost couldn’t lift it! – and she was to take the bus to get back home at night.

The bus ride is very short. Provided you don’t forget to get off the bus at some point.

Click to embiggify

• Green is CutieDaughter school
• Red is our house.
• Pink is where she got off.

This one shows the bus route.

Click to embiggify

• Green is CutieDaughter school
• Red is our house.
• Pink is where she got off.

Now if there was ever a doubt that CutieDaughter is LovelyWife’s blood…