A Husband for All Seasons

Ok, I'll admit it. I'm old-fashioned and BORING. My eye doctor even told me I'd need bifocals yesterday. Other people lead more exciting lives.

Many of the people I've met online in my YoVille game are happily married. The first married couple I really got to know had some shared homes and beautiful pictures of one another on their virtual walls. I'll call them Dan and Danielle. They spent a lot of money (well, $100 is a LOT of money on a 'free' game) making their homes beautiful places to be together avatar-wise because they lived in two different states. Something about the husband's job and he can't leave the job just yet.

It struck me as a little strange but certainly not unheard of. My own father travelled internationally for business and my mother accompanied him on only one of those trips. To Brazil, ages and ages ago. So... I do understand that dads have to work, and are often away from home.

But then I heard about Danielle's lavish wedding. It was, she said, the most important and most touching day of her life. All her friends were there. It was a great online experience. And as soon as Dan is ready to leave his wife, they can start their lives in REAL life out in Oklahoma with her kids.

*thunk*

I'm a little more jaded now when I come across "families" on YoVille. I wasn't surprised when D played for a little bit and we'd pop into other people's "houses" for a bit that new friends weren't sure what to make of us. You mean, you're married? In real life or just on YoVille? Real life? And you're on YoVille together? Do you have another husband/wife on YoVille? Wait, it's just YOU together? You're on the game from separate floors in your house?? (Ohh. Hmm, that's different...)

What can I say? We're an odd family. So far as I know, my husband doesn't even have a "work spouse." That would make life interesting.

For those of you backward people who don't know what a work spouse is, it's basically a worktime-only husband or wife. No sex (yet). "Nearly two thirds of workers have or have had a work spouse" according to the article, but "surprisingly" there are no greeting cards for this. If you were writing one, what would it say? "Happy Valentine's Day, my quirky-cute office spouse. You know all my secrets and my deepest wishes. You are so much cuter than my real wife, 25 years younger, and it's awesome that you never nag me to do the lawn or help with the kids. And this bunch of roses I buy you once a year proves you are lower maintenance than that old cow. Hubba Hubba. Love, Jack."

Congrats, Henry the Tuatara!

On becoming the father of 11 new babies at the age of 111. Chris sent us a book with rhymes all about the tuatara from New Zealand, so Elf and Emperor were very excited to see his picture and read his story in the news.

Go Away!

Do we *really* need telephone polls? Do I really care what my neighbours think about a particular issue? This article makes it sound as though the entire world is just going to fall to pieces unless a nice chunk of representative American households complete lengthy surveys by telephone on a regular basis:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22140953

I don't think I've ever answered telephone surveys that were randomly generated. I think I've answered a total of ONE survey, ever. That was from my local city, and it was well-publicized that they'd be calling some households to ask about how happy we were with city services, etc. I had some nice things to say about the road repair crew, because when I called about a problem they were out in less than HALF AN HOUR and fixed the problem (yay!). I had some not-nice things to say about city planning and schools. I think their goal was 1,000 households so I had, like, 1/1000th of an impact on a survey that the city planners might get 'round to looking at. Go me!!