All Good Things

In 7 days I will be packing. Fortunately, samba panties don't take up much room, so I'll be able to carry on.

In addition to that goodness, I am touched by other good things in life:

• Played a couple play money tourneys last night on PokerStars - 45 person tables - they seem more realistic than the 1 tables which tend to be a crazy all in fest. Took 3rd and 4th. And 4th wasn't bad - I just pushed with a pair of kings heads up and the guy caught his ace.
• Heard from an old dear acquaintance - and got him reconnected with the Dr., too. Nice to have those little surprises come into your life.
• Getting flowers from my mom for my birthday.
• The sun is out in Seattle - when the sun is out, this is one of the most beautiful places around.
• My team is 10-1. Hopefully tonight they make it 11-1. Either way, I'm sure someone will have something to say about it. Glad Bam Bam is on my side. I'm hoping that even Drizz will be on our side. My personal rule has always been (a) Green Bay should win; (b) If Green Bay is not playing, then I cheer for any other NFC-North team; or (c) I cheer for any team opposing the Cowboys, especially if its and NFC-North team.
• Got a great price on tickets to Florida for the kids and au pair in February. School break, but busy season for me. They can enjoy the beach with the grandparents; I can work 15 hours days guilt free and come home to a silent house with no responsibilities.

Hope you all have something good to think about today, as well.

Respectfully submitted,

The Wife

Stolen Moments

In my drowsy state, I barely felt the bed shift as he slipped in next to me. He was still warm from sleep, and I shifted to make room. Still, with the space a queen size bed has to offer, he chose to occupy my side and my pillow. His hair tickled my cheek, his breath, warm on my neck. He snuggled in closer, and threw an arm across me.

"I love you," he whispered.

I lay there, not wanting to wake up. I let my fingers trace the smooth curve of his shoulder.

"Stop it Mommy! You're tickling me," he giggled.

Yes people, I stole a moment this morning, as my 5-year old came in for a quick snuggle and hug.

Hope you have a great day!

Respectfully submitted,

The Wife

Does Life Come with a Remote and Does it Have a Pause Button?

I struggle with time management these days. I work full time (senior management, read more than 50 hours per week, minimum). I commute 1-2 hours per day to do this work. I raise two children. I have no spouse right now to help with shopping and homework and changing air filters and taillights in cars and parent teacher conferences.

There is no chicken or fruit or toaster waffles or dishwasher soap in the house right now.

The last "date" I had was dinner. One month ago. With my au pair.

Poker? I haven't played poker in 4 days.

I should not complain. With two incomes, I pay someone to clean my toilets. I pay someone to tend my yard. I pay a young woman to live in my house so that my 10-year old does not come home to an empty house and so that my two children have someone to eat breakfast with so that I can start my wicked commute. I pay a preschool to help my youngest son learn to read and write.

Today, while I dried my hair, my littlest man came into my bedroom with pen and paper. "How do you spell 'house'?" he asked. As he lay on his stomach on the floor in his SpongeBob briefs, I stopped to help him remember what an "H" looks like, congratulated him on how nice his "S" looked, and helped him spell new words. Then I realized I was going to be late for a 9:00 meeting and started rushing around. And today was the deadline for benefits registration. And I had to have the audit committee materials ready by noon.

I'd like to take more time to help him explore this new world of writing, go to a movie by myself, shop for apples and dishsoap and a new book without it being a sprint. I'd like to have 30 minutes to sit with my oldest son and have him tell me about the latest Spiderwick book he just read. I'd like to skip the audit committee meeting to take time to help my new staff understand what she's doing so she doesn't feel so lost when I'm busy. I'd like to take time to write my awesome administrative assistant a performance review, then take her to lunch to talk about it. I'd like to call my friends and relatives from the comfort of my couch to catch up, rather than on my hands-free device while I drive home.

If one of you finds the remote, can you just hit the "pause" button for me?

Respectfully submitted,

The Wife

So many things . . . so little time

12 days? Lot to do in 12 days:

• Complete initial application for promotion. Take all accomplishments, ignore the team part of the effort, make them all sound like my idea, and amplify them all another 20%.
• Do all the work I should have done this weekend when I was sick.
• Finish reviewing all my staff's work. There is a reason that on most of our clients, we have managers AND senior managers (me). Fate has intervened to leave me manager-less on all right now - I pity the poor thing who's work is coming directly to me.
• Finish shopping for Hanukkah presents. We light candles for the first night the evening of December 4th. That is right around the corner. I have the big gift (can you say "Wii"?). But they like small individual presents too.
• Send DrChako the next care package. He needs Hanukkah presents too.
• Coordinate the babysitting.
• Keep practicing on line NLHE. So tired of slogging through 9,000 of the 10,000 entrants, only to have one suck out take me out.
• Buy more clothes. Have been convinced my my au pair that the corporate nun thing isn't going to fly in Vegas.
• Buy cute Packer tank top. If' I'm going to make Drizz wear Packer gear on Sunday and get photographed with me, he at least deserves to see the green displayed a little nicer than across the average Packer fan beer belly.
• Call Mom.
• Do nails.
• Cut hair? Or just pay Jeff $30 to take 3 mm off the ends, 'cause I can work with this length.
• Shave. Maybe wax. No shave. Wax?

I'm sure I've forgotten something.

Respectfully submitted,

The Wife

The Difference Between Brazilians and Me

So last night and this morning, I had a house full of Brazilian women. Yesterday was my au pair's birthday, for which I was unable to cobble together any reasonable sort of celebration. I was under the influence of a combination of Valium, oxycodone, ibuprofen and a host of other inhalants and pills - I looked and felt like a junkie. So they spent the night with her, the shrill chatter of Portuguese filling my woozy head as I drifted off to a drug-induced sleep.

Today they ate breakfast with us - I felt good enough to cook. I showered before breakfast and stepped on the scale to find that I was now a mere 2 pounds from my wedding weight. 13 years and two children ago. Not to bad, although I wouldn't recommend the near-death, don't eat anything diet as a first line of getting there.

I was teasing the au pair that I was now thin enough to wear her clothes - to which she and her friends promptly began dressing me in. And taking pictures. Which no one but the Dr. will ever see. It was very flattering to have a bunch of 20 somethings oohing and aahhing over the fact that I could be a 39 year old mother of two and wear these things. If you're not quite sure how they dress in Brazil (where is it very warm, most of the year), think Carnival. We once commented to one of our friends from Rio that at Carnival, everyone was naked. She casually replied "not EVERYONE." 'Nuff said.

But then my au pair went on to say to the girls "But for work, she never shows her beautiful body. She has nice clothes, but they are all serious. Never she shows how she looks."

I work in corporate America. I spend my day with partners and audit committees and CEOs and CFOs in board rooms, and supervising up and coming business men and women. I wear suits and sweaters and blouses. When I'm feeling sassy, I wear my knee-length black leather boots with my skirt and sweater. Not that I don't want to look pretty, but I didn't think the point was for the whole world to know every curve of my body, regardless of how it looks. This is not TV land where your suits are made of spandex and your sweaters as tight and low cut as can be. I don't think I'm overly conservative - its not like I don't unbutton a button or two. But apparently in Brazil, my dress would effectively be equivalent to a nun. A well-dressed corporate nun, that is.

Maybe in Vegas, I'll change that. Who knows if I can hang on to this body for another 10 years? Watch out.

The Other Top Five

I've been sick in bed for the last few days. I missed Thanksgiving with friends (and that happens to be my favorite holiday and holiday meal of all time). I've been taking more prescription narcotics than you can count on your hands . . . Valium, oxycodone, . . . you name it, I could make a fortune selling it if I didn't need it.

I've been reading blogs and e-mails to pass the time in bed. For as much as I love the stories of poker donkery, the rants, and the excitement of the upcoming trips, I'm a girl, so I'm always touched when one of you manly men have the courage to show feelings. Like the roller coaster Instant Tragedy can be on with his kids. Or the fact that Drizz can take a moment to stop talking about poker or that collection of purple-suited meatheads he cheers for every Sunday to worry about what he and the little one are going to get his wife for the holidays.

Today BamBam made me cry. If you want to know how a man should love his wife, you should read. So in honor of his open expression of his love for Pebbles, I would like to give you my other top five - the top five things that my previous top five probably couldn't bring to the table for the last 13 years like DrChako has:

1. He has made me try everything and anything, and made me experience things I would have never done on the farm. Like raw oysters, sushi, skiing, golf, snorkeling, and living in Europe. Thank you for the experiences.
2. He saw my in my wedding dress and his eyes lit up, like I was the prettiest woman in the world. It's the only day I've ever looked at photographs of myself and thought I was beautiful. Thank you for making me your princess.
3. He is the only man who is comfortable competing with me for everything (and probably one of the few smart enough to compete with me) . . . poker, Jeopardy, Scrabble, Boggle, Trivial Pursuit . . . one of these days he will learn to stop pimping me with 80's music trivia. Thank you for being my intellectual equal.
4. He is one of the most generous individuals I know, almost to a fault. He will share any thing for anyone in need and makes me understand what it is to be truly charitable with no restrictions. Thank you for the $150 for my CPA exam in 1992; hopefully I have paid it back multi-fold.
5. He is one of the last of the true gentlemen. Always a smile for everyone, always holds the door for women (my mother and grandmother fell in love instantly), always treats those deserving of respect with their due respect. Our au pair holds her future love to his standard of chivalry; may she be as lucky as I am.

Some day, I'll give you the top 5 things about him that tick me off; but until he comes home to annoy me, this is all you get.

Come home love.

Respectfully submitted,

The Wife

Top Five

So I've been blog-spammed and now tagged for a list by Mr. Instant Tragedy himself. I feel like a part of the Kuh-myoo-ni-tee, as Bam Bam puts it.

By the way, I made Bam-Bam blush. If one little e-mail is going to do it, I don't know how he's going to survive me in Vegas. At least IT is getting a little taste of the randomness that can come out of an accountant's mind and mouth when their whole day is spent being business-like and professional.

So here is the Top Five. Not the movies and crap. I'm high on oxycodone for some killer neck and headache pain, and don't have the patience or wits to think that hard. But in our 12+ years of marriage, the Dr. and I have been very forthcoming about our "List". I've met couples who are not and pretend they would never create such a thing because their love is so strong there can be no other. Whatever. Truthfully, if DrChako was propositioned by Angelina and turned it down, I'd think something was wrong with him. And if he took her up on it, I'd be a little proud that my husband was hot enough to warrant her attention.

So in order of how long they have been on the list:

1. Hugh Jackman. Wolverine hair is a little much, but aside from that . . . hot, hot, HOT.
2. Antonio Banderas. Preferably with the long, dark "Desperados" hair.
3. Johnny Depp.
4. Jason Statham. The Transporter. Doesn't talk a lot, looks hot with shaved hair, and I love when he has to change shirts in the movie.
5. Murilo Benicio. Brazilian actor in "Woman on Top". He could be on top for all I care.

And I'm not sure open solicitation is actually part of this deal, but if Hugh Jackman is reading and happens to be in Vegas December 7 - 9 . . . your shoes may occupy any space under my bed.

No tag backs.

Respectfully submitted,

The Wife

Blog Spam?

Since when did comments become a place for the random Brazilian internet spammer? I'm hoping I can figure out how to moderate this crap . . .

This is America, land of the free, home of the brave, free speech, yada, yada yada. But this is MY freakin' blog for me to dump MY random thoughts and to have MY friends, acquaintances and readers leave me THEIR thoughts and wishes. Not for you to advertise your cheap-ass internet services (yes, I can read enough Portuguese to know you were just advertising).

You didn't even have the courtesy to tell me I was "linda" or "maravilhosa" . . . good luck selling that stuff, buddy. Next time, "sprechen sie Englische", "por favor" and confine your comment to something I actually care about.

For those of you who did not have the pleasure of reading, its gone now.

Respectfully submitted,

The Wife

Good Day

A huge thank you to Bam Bam, for being so kind to think of me on my birthday. Without my love, but certainly, I did not feel alone and all of your comments make me feel more connected to you and to my husband through this invisible net we've cast around each other.

Thanks to Sean, for being the last person to wish me a happy birthday before it was over.

Thanks to all of my other friends (real live ones!) too, who found time to call, e-mail and send their wishes. Makes me feel lucky.

I have hugs saved for all who want them - less than 3 weeks to go.

Respectfully submitted,

The Wife

Poker is a Bitch

So for those of you who haven't already realized that for all the poker skills in the world, there is still a lot of luck involved, I just want to share a hand with you all.

Last week my in-laws were in town. Nana Judy was playing me head's up. She never raised with her big pairs, always called me with random cards when I raised, and caught more straights on the river than any river rat I've met. She loves playing, and its fun to play with her, but frustrating to always get your money in with the best hand and have her suck out.

While we're playing, Son #2 wants to play. So we divide up the chips, and deal a hand. I'm dealt pocket 4s. I raise 4x the blind. Son #2 is to my left and calls (he's 5 - he doesn't know what he's doing). Nana Judy has something random (AGAIN) like K9 offsuit and calls. Flop comes out 10 - 3 - 2, or something like that. I go all in. Son #2 calls (he's 5 -he doesn't know what he's doing). Nana Judy calls. We all turn over. Son #2 has 10-7 offsuit and wins with his pair of 10s and takes us both out.

Strategy is worthless when the opponent can't do addition, much less pot odds.

Last night, he reminded me that he won poker.

He's competitive - he's my son.

Respectfully submitted,

The Wife

Happy Birthday to Me

Tomorrow is the big 39. Today, since it was the last day my in-laws were here, they elected to celebrate my birthday a day early.

Their gift was a fabulous gift card to one of our favorite restaurants - to be shared when my love returns. Salty's awaits us, baby!

Nana Judy (who kicked my ass in heads-up poker last night when she ignored my monster raises with my pocket kings, thought her pair of 3s with her 3-2 offsuit might be good, and went all in with me, only to watch the board go runner runner to give her a straight, 6-2) took the kids shopping and bought me a beautiful freshwater pearl arm cuff.

And my sweetheart had enlisted the help of a secret shopper to buy me a beautiful new coat. I know this might not seem romantic, but I have been looking for one for the past year. I keep putting it off because they are expensive. He keeps chiding me and telling me to spend the money. So now I own this beautiful black angora blend winter jacket that looks so elegant and I can hear his voice telling me to just get it. I broke down in tears. Still crying.

I had a beautiful birthday with family - just one person was missing.

Come home, Dr.

Respectfully submitted,

The Wife

Another One!

Watching the clock tick down to a fabulouse 9-1 record. You're beautiful Favre!

Good win to the Vikes . . . but won't be enough to catch us - you'll be looking at our beautiful green behinds for the rest of the season!

Respectfully submitted,

The Wife

Sucker for These Things

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Thanks, IT. I thought I would be someone more romantic than the Godfather. Who are the rest of you?

Its Been 5 Days . . .

I apologize. I feel like I'm doggy-paddling in the big pool of life, lately. I haven't made much progress across the pool, and my arms are getting tired.

• Work is piling up all around me. Combination of my busy schedule and some client delays which all seem to be resolving themselves NOW.
• I contracted a massive cold. So not only did I have sniffles over my business trip the last two days, but by the time I got on the flight last night to come home, my sinus were packed and I thought my head would pop off on descent.
• Said flight was delayed last night, so the decongestant I took started to kick in too early and I was in a coma on the plane. As such, I slept in the same position for over 2 hours without moving - my muscles locked up and I was stiff and sore on landing.
• I sat next to some hot guy on the flight. I'm married to a hot guy, but not above talking to other hot guys when given the chance. However, as a result of said decongestant-induced coma, I did not have an opportunity to speak with said hot guy.

On the positive side, the kids are having a great time with the grandparents, who flew in to help. And my training was beneficial in terms of what I learned and the individuals that I met who are experts in this area of accounting, so I have a whole new resource group to go to. And today I did get my partnership application in my e-mail, so on to step two in this long, long promotion process.

I can't wait to unwind in Vegas for 48 hours!

See you there.

It Could Be Worse . . .

34-0. Shut out on the Frozen Tundra.

It could be worse Drizz . . . I could have insisted the loser of the bet wear the appropriate headgear as well.

So will it be a classic green and gold T-shirt? I could bring my commemorative Packer's Superbowl shirt to share. Don't forget to look pretty Sunday morning for the picture.

Thanks for being a good sport and acknowledging a good game on your blog.

Respectfully submitted (ok, I did the endzone dance, before hitting "publish"),

The Wife

I Hate The Bubble

So Pokerstars gave me a free $5 to entice me to play some money games and make a deposit. I've been milking that $5 for a few weeks now.

Last night I played a $1.00 + $.20 NLHE multitable tourney - 45 players. Top 7 get paid. I was being pretty conservative and was able to keep myself in the top 9 for most of the game, often hovering around the 5 or 6 mark.

We got down to one table of 9 players. 2 were substantially below me - I was about 5 or 7 at this point. One guy (not on the bubble) goes all in - both of the low stacks call. I am out of that pot so fast, you could see those little dust trails like Speedy Gonzales used to make. I'm thinking I couldn't have asked for a better strategy to help me win.

All the cards flop over - all in guy has A5 suited - other guys have junk. Flop comes 245 - giving all in top pair. I think we're all going home with some money now. Turn is a 3 - now he has a straight! River . . . is a 6. They all split the pot.

Needless to say, as the blinds go up to $1,200 and your stack is only $4,000 - just a couple spins around the board and dead cards - I chose K9 suited to play with and ran up against pocket Qs.

Just call me "Bubble" girl.

I hate this game.

Respectfully submitted,

The Wife

Now Comes the Waiting

For those interested, the interview went well. But unlike most other interviews, the lag time between the start of this process and the end result is ENORMOUS.

Hopefully, by the time DrChako returns, I'll know. Now I have more things to wait for.

But given that its a long-term goal, I'm trying to convince myself that this is ok.

Until then, I focus on short-term goals, like:

• Getting through this week
• Watching the Packers whomp some purple behind on Sunday
• Seeing my in-laws (yes, I actually like them) next week
• Thanksgiving (I love turkey - and days off) with my friend Jen
• VEGAS!
• Seeing my family in December (4 days is the perfect amount of time to love them without tiring of them)
• Having the last two weeks of December off
• DrChako reaching the 50% mark on his tour

Share your favorite short term goals with me and we'll toast them in December, bloggers.

Respectfully submitted,

The Wife

Wish Me Luck . . .

So my suit is laid out. My boarding passes printed. My driver arranged at the airport. Phone is charging. I'm about to shave my legs and head to bed.

4:00 a.m. will come early, but that's the time I need to be up to catch my flight to San Fran for my interview. Interviewing to be, as my au pair puts it, "The Man". Or in this case, The Woman.

Reminds me of that phone commercial with the executive saying he's "sticking it to 'The Man'" and his lackey says "Uh, sir, you are The Man. So you're sticking it to yourself?"

It might be good to be "The Man". It will take a long time to find out, but this is step one.

Wish me luck. My husband wants a Ferrari. I want to retire early. Becoming "The Man" might make those two goals NOT mutually exclusive.

Respectfully submitted,

The Wife

People are Weird

Sunday was the au pair's day off. She left to go shopping with a new friend. Came back 30 minutes later. Son #1 comes into my room.

"Mom, T is crying in her room."

I'm touched that my kids care enough to be observant. I go to her room. Apparently the friend, a Brazilian woman who has lived here for 10 years, accused T of trying to still her boyfriend by talking to him while the woman was still getting ready. According to the au pair, the conversation was limited to her impressions of Seattle, theater, and daylight savings time. In the kitchen of the woman's house.

She had told me before this friend had asked T not to wear her exercise clothes to her house to tempt her boyfriend. The woman told T that you don't talk to American women's boyfriends or husbands. T did not understand and told her that she has talked to DrChako many times and was even in the house alone with him before. Her "friend" said that was unacceptable.

Now, she's a beautiful 22 year old girl. If you're a man and can't see that to some extent, you are dead. And she does wear exercise clothes (tank tops and leggings) a lot. I guess I've never seen it as provocative, although they are very figure revealing, naturally. It looks out of place, in a way - I've never said anything as I figure she'll one day figure out that the rest of the Seattle area schleps around in jeans and polar fleece rather than spandex.

Her comment about the boyfriend? "He's old." Which probably means he's over 40. So I'm pretty sure she had no designs on him, as 40 is about as close to death as she knows. Anyway, she cried and cried and said she doesn't understand jealousy.

Oh well. Good thing I stuck my husband in the desert where he'll be safe from the sneaky wiles of a spandex-covered Brazilian.

*****

The positive side of this story? My oldest son, who can kind of test her now and then, was extra kind, gave her hugs to make her feel better, and stayed out of her way. Oh, and last nigh, when we were deciding on dinner, he suggested Thai (which we like and she hates), but he said "We can promise her that if she doesn't find something she likes, we'll make her a sandwich when she comes home." From a 10-year old, that's thoughtful.

Respectfully submitted,

The Wife

Venetian, Here I Come

Yes, folks, its official. Booked at the Venetian, in the style to which my husband would like me to become accustomed. Be there Friday evening for dinner, and pulling out Sunday in the late afternoon, so I will expect to revel in slightly less than 48 hours of bloggerly love and good times.

For those interested (or not), my beloved Pack chalked up another win today. The only downside (well, besides a few of those interceptions?) was that it wasn't televised in our market so I had to watch the VIKINGS game to get score updates. On a day where they actually pulled one out. Talk about blasphemy.

Oh well. Go Green Bay!

Looking forward to making or extending new friendships - and carrying on DrChako's legacy (except the losing money part).

Respectfully submitted,

The Wife

Poker and Other Randomness

So in preparation for playing with bloggers in Vegas, I decide to do a few massive freerolls - the 15 minute SNG doesn't replicate what I'll be up against.

I played strong when I had it, waited patiently when I didn't, and only had one lucky break where I pushed with my pocket 7s and got two callers with A-rag and K-rag . . . one who had me outchipped. The king hit the flop, but my third seven hit the river. I ended up out of the money, but 104 out of 12,000 ain't bad. Top 1%, baby!

Still have to make my reservations - the hubby has convinced me to splurge and get a nice room. But a special thanks to Princess Maigrey for the offer of a roommate and others who have given their good advice. I might splurge and try to get close to the Venetian.

*****

Had parent-teacher conference yesterday. Son #1 is doing fine - although has a tendency to make funny comments and outbursts at inappropriate times. Might be a good comedian or actor someday. He thinks in "TV" thoughts anyway. His teacher shared a very funny work of fiction the kids had to write - a dream sequence. His dream was about waking up next to a river and finding he was a beaver. Then it goes on to discuss meeting up with his beaver friends, the conversations they have (such as, "You got any Red Bull?"), and the things they do. At one point, his beaver friend takes him to see "his lady" who is a "hot beaver in a hot spring."

Once I got past my Beavis and Butthead urge to snicker, I said "how did you know the lady beaver was hot?" Reply? "Well, she had long hair, and she came up out of the water and kind of threw her hair back and the water went flying everywhere . . . " Reminiscent of Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and the scene with Phoebe Cates, apparently, which he's never seen. That made me laugh even harder.

Funny aside, I made him get his hair cut and now he is totally mad at me for "ruining" his style. Told me he won't be able to concentrate in school because he'll be thinking about all the people laughing at him. Oh, to be 10.

Respectfully submitted,

The Wife