Married In Ohio

After a couple of warmer days winter is back with a vengeance. It’s 12°F outside with 39 mph winds gusting to 46 mph which results in a wind chill of -12°F. The howling winds make it hard to think about summer. So, rather than having a longing for summer theme, we decided to feature some of our cold weather gear. When it gets cool outside, we wear UnderArmor when we go for our runs. We would not workout outside in weather like this; but it comes in very handy on late fall and early spring days. Our theme for today is “another use for UnderArmor”. It’s a lot more like doing this than being out in the cold.

To see if there are other uses for your workout clothes, talk to your significant other. To find out what Half Nekkid Thursday is all about, visit Osbasso.

I didn’t get a new camera for Christmas; but I did get some new editing video editing/transcoding software. It smarter/faster (i.e. newer) that what I had previously used and does a much better job of creating WMVs. The only reason that the video below is fuzzy is because I applied a light blurring to the entire frame. Maybe someday, I’ll figure out how to blur just where our faces are. I really like the new software. The video about the same size as the other medium resolution (320×240) movies that that we have posted despite being twice as long! I didn’t think we would ever be posting five minute long 320×240 video clips. Now I think it might be possible to post short high resolution (640×480) movies. Anyway, our theme for today is “300 seconds”. Please let us know what you think of the video quality wise. (Other than the blurring which was intentional.) It’s almost 5 MB, so please be patient.

As usual, we’re only posting the video in Windows Media format (WMV) to save bandwidth. Leave us a comment if you can’t play it.

To find out how much of a difference new softer can make, grab your camera and see your significant other.

Recently, The Girl gave California Girl several sweaters that were too small for her. Up until now, it’s been the other way around. Aren’t mothers usually bigger than their daughters? It seems strange seeing California Girl in clothes that The Girl used to wear. It really emphasizes the fact that the kids are growing up. They’ve been almost the same size for a while - I usually get them the same size premiums at road races; but t-shirts and sweatshirts are not the same as regular clothes. The Boy and I do not have the same body type, so even though he is taller than I am, there was never a time I could wear his clothes (or the other way around). California Girl and The Girl don’t have the same body dimensions either; but, depending on the style, women’s clothes can be more forgiving. I wonder what will be the next thing to change hands, and in which direction. If anyone has older kids and this is something that has happened to you, we’d love to know your thoughts.

That’s how far away The Boy will be when he goes off to college. Everything came together last week and his college plans are finalized. I’m happy that goes going to the college of his choice; but sad to see him making plans leave home. That’s about a 4 hour drive for me if I make good time; so we will be able to visit him periodically. But, it’s not the same as living at home. And, since The Girl usually has soccer games on weekends in the fall we won’t be visit him much at all. It could be “worse”. He could be going to college on the other side of the country and only come home over breaks. He’ll be able to come home for long weekends since he’s in easy driving distance.

I haven’t forgotten all of the positives. In today’s economy, college is very important. It doesn’t guarantee anything; but having a college degree is better than not having one. It gives him four more years to learn and grow without having to face the hard, unforgiving world in which we live. And, if he gets good grades, it can pave the way to a good first job after college. Plus, it’s a great reward for working so hard in high school. We often blog about how well the kids have done in sports. But they both know that high schools sports are just for fun. And that academic excellence is far more important than being a good athlete. I’m going to miss watching him compete when wrestling season is over. But I know that he will still be competing and excelling in the classroom.

The bitter cold days have continued. It gets like this every year; but that doesn’t mean that we like it any better. One of the things that cheer us up is when the next edition of the Venus swimwear catalog arrives in the mail. It’s fun to look at and pick out some swim suits that we think California Girl would look good in. Our pool looks like an ice skating rink and summer is still many months off; but picking out new bikinis for the summer makes it seem not quite as far off. So our theme for today is “swim 2008 selection”. We’ll be sure to feature California Girl modeling the new suits when they arrive.

For a private review of this summer’s swimwear fashions, talk to your significant other. To find out what Half Nekkid Thursday is all about, visit Osbasso.

Because of The Girl’s schedule, we held our weekly photo session on Monday night. We prefer Tuesday evening; but don’t like the very late night it causes. A late night on occasion is OK; but we don’t want to plan on one every Tuesday until summer. Plus, then we should be able to post these photographs on Monday night/Tuesday morning so our Two For Tuesday post would actually be on Tuesday. Anyway, here are a couple of photographs from the end of our Monday session. It ended like mostall of our photo sessions.

For a great ending like this, talk to your significant other.

As we zoom toward the day that California Girl and I will be taking The Boy off to school, we can’t help but think about how quiet it will be in the house with only one kid. The kids are only two years apart, and The Girl learned to talk at a very young age, so most of the past 15 years has been filed with their conversations. As any parent will attest, a four year old has some very interesting conversations with a two year old. Some of our fondest memories are of the kids talking to each other. When they were small babies every day was a grand adventure and they took great pleasure in the simplest things. I’ll never forget some of the conversations they had as they explored the bags from the grocery store.

They were inseparable as they grew and went through their elementary school days. I often said, for example, that it was like having the mind of a five year old with the size and manual dexterity of a seven year old. Whatever they did, they always did together. Some days were very trying but I still wouldn’t trade them for anything. Nowadays, they talk about the teams that they play on or other things (e.g. teachers and fellow students) from school. They’ve been doing a lot together, even for them. California Girl and I get the feeling that they‘re both starting to realize that their days together are almost over. The Girl is very, very unlikely to go to the came college as The Boy, so this coming August is a new chapter for everyone.

Thighs-n-Eyez commented in the shoutbox:

I love you both! May I ask why you didn’t get married before you lived together? Also, what made you want to get married to CG, MCB after you guys were already living together?

We decide to respond in a post since the answer is more than 500 characters.

Even when we had separate places, we didn’t spend very much time apart, so, it didn’t seem to make very much sense to do anything else. It seemed almost like “hedging or bet” which wasn’t how either of us felt. Plus, neither set of parent’s approved off our relationship, so a wedding which is typically for family and friends was difficult to arrange. Everyone wants their wedding to be special, and we were no different, so, even though it was something that we expected, it was very frustrating. In a way, because our relationship was so controversial, we didn’t receive a lot of pressure from our parents to “do the right thing”. And, remember, by the mid to late 1980’s living together had lost the stigma that it once had and was becoming much more widespread, especially for people of our generation.

We got married because we both like having a spouse. There is a sense of commitment and permanence that living together doesn’t have. It may just have been in our minds; but it was important to us. I liked the idea of proposing and trying to make a special moment to California Girl. We like having an anniversary to celebrate. Unlike a lot of men, I always wear my wedding band, probably even at times that I shouldn’t. We ended up having a small wedding; but it’s still part of our shared history together. We like to focus on the positive; but were a lot of external things gong on that made our life much more difficult. We’ve always made our own way without muchany help. In, fact, I was just mentioning to California Girl about an event that happened around that time that I consider a watershed moment in my personal history. We make decisions more for ourselves and each other than almost anyone that you will ever meet. We wanted to get married so we did.

As I mentioned previously, it’s been cold outside. Typical weather for an Ohio winter; but still a bit depressing. So, for today, California Girl is lady summer and I am old man winter. She’s wearing a new summer top she recently purchased that she won’t be able to wear for quite a while, and I’m in a bulky winter sweater. The summer solstice is far away but it was fun to do our own version of winter meeting summer. I will be glad when California Girl can resume wearing he summer clothes every day instead of just for pictures. In the meantime, please enjoy our rendition of “summer meets winter”.

For a preview of summer fun, talk to your significant other. To find out what Half Nekkid Thursday is all about, visit Osbasso.

California Girl is on her period so we didn’t use many accessories during our photo session this week besides the venerable towels. The Girl’s schedule is still making for some very late Tuesday nights. Plus, winter is back after a few days of unseasonably warm temperatures. So, we don’t have as much time or alternatives as we usually do. Still, we thought that it might be interesting to show that period sex does happen and that it’s just as much fun. Let us know what you think.

For some fun during that time of the month, talk to your significant other.