I’m off for a day all to myself.  I’ve got a facial (my first, ever!) and a haircut and color this morning.  After that, maybe a quiet lunch by myself and spending as much time as I care to at the quilt shop. I’m leaving before the kids get out of bed, and by the time I get back, they should be taking their afternoon nap (or done with it, depending on how long I linger!).  I really need this little break. and M is graciously facilitating it.  He’s only giving me a hard time because I wasn’t able to throw a massage in there, too.

Anyways, partly in honor of my beloved for playing Mr. Mom today, I saw this little meme on dooce and thought I’d throw it out there.  A bit more about me and M…

What are your middle names?
Mine is Anne, after my mom. It’s also the middle name we gave to Rebecca. His is David. I think his mom just really liked the name, second only to his first name.

How long have you been together?
Eight years. Dated a year and a half before moving in together, and lived together two years before getting engaged. Engaged 4 1/2 months before getting married.  Once I get the green light, I don’t mess around.

How long did you know each other before you started dating?
Not long at all. We had only met three times (in November and December of 2000) before we started dating mid-January 2001.

Who asked whom out?
Hard to say.  There was a series of extremely flirty emails that got the ball rolling, and I think it was me who started the exchange.

How old are each of you?
I’m 30, he’s 34.  When we started dating (at 22 and 26), I was pretty fresh out of college and tickled at the idea of dating someone “older.”  I quickly stopped noticing, unless specifically discussing something in the 1990s.  Then it was a big game of “oh, you were in high school then? I was only in 7th grade!”

Whose siblings do you see the most?
M’s sister lives in Boston, so we see her most weekends. She and I have become good friends, even though I don’t think I made a good first impression.  And she’s an awesome and adoring aunt.
My brother and stepsister live in Chicago, and my stepbrother in Vegas, so we don’t see much of them.

Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?
Huh.  I think division of labor is a sticky issue for us. Chores, getting things done.  I tend to be a little more “get up and go” than he is, which causes some conflict.  And we pretty much cannot talk about home renovations, especially with regard to the kitchen.  Guaranteed argument.

Did you go to the same school?
Nope.  He did his undergrad here in Boston, mine was in Chicago.  I moved out here for graduate school, and he was still living in the area post-college.

Are you from the same home town?
Nope.  I grew up in Illinois, he in Connecticut.

Who is smarter?
M is wicked smart. A voracious reader and knowledgeable on tons of topics. But sometimes he’s overconfident and just starts pulling smart-sounding things out of his ass, when really he has no knowledge of the subject at all.  And he has no sense of time.  Not only is he always late, but everything was “two weeks ago.”  Even if it was three years ago.  I have a much better memory for dates and details.  M prefers to embellish stories and it drives him nuts when I start correcting the details.  “That wasn’t last Thursday, it was the previous Monday!”

Who is the most sensitive?
Well. Hrm.  When we first started dating, I would have said me.  But not only has the more practical, hard-ass side of me come out thanks to M, but he’s also much more sensitive than someone might initially think.  He can be brash and crude, but things really do get to him.

Where do you eat out most as a couple?
We love sushi.  Our favorite little sushi place in Cambridge switched owners, and we don’t live very close to there anymore.  But on the rare nights when we get someone to watch the kids and go out, it’s most likely going to be for sushi.  Which I had never tried until he took me to a sushi place the very first weekend we were sorta-dating.  Since then, I’ve become a bit more adventurous with the kinds I’ll try (though not super daring), and have developed a much heavier hand with the wasabi.

Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
Mexico (Acapulco) for our honeymoon.

Who has the craziest exes?
M, hands down.  While some are/were nice, he’s got a lot of nut-jobs in his past.  He was… ahem… busy in college.  Mine is a much shorter list, and everyone on it is pretty nice. I didn’t date any lunatics.

Who has the worst temper?
Me. For sure.  I get really mad and want to hit/throw things.  M doesn’t generally go that direction.  If he’s mad, he gets quiet, just like his dad.  And it’s kind of scary.  I’m louder and easier to set off.  Don’t get him started telling stories of my road rage.

Who does the cooking?
Me.  M has a few dishes he can do, especially steak.  But if he cooks, it tends to get  kind of free-form, which can be hit or miss.  Plus, if I waited for him to get home to start dinner, we’d never eat.

Who is the neat-freak?
Neither of us.  Though sometimes I think he was simply born with a different optical nerve, as someone in my MOT club put it.  The things he manages to just not see boggle the mind.  But I shouldn’t talk.  I’m a terrible housekeeper, and you will have to pry my cleaning ladies from my cold, dead fingers.  I’ll cut back on all manner of things, but I will continue to pay someone to clean my bathroom for as long as I can.

Who is more stubborn?
Hard to say. I’m obstinate stubborn.  He’s ‘refuse to make a decision’ stubborn.

Who hogs the bed?
Me, or so I’m told.  I believe it.  Except that once M comes to bed, he snores so loud that I often end up moving to the guest room somewhere between 3 and 6AM.

Who wakes up earlier?
Me, for sure.  I’ve always been a relatively early riser, and M is my polar opposite.  He often stays up well past 2AM, whether playing Warcraft or reading or whatever.  He really never comes to bed before midnight.  And he could sleep until 2 in the afternoon if I let him.  It’s unreal.

Where was your first date?
We didn’t really do “dates.”  The first weekend things started rolling were mostly spent at my apartment in Kenmore Square watching movies.  And making 3AM runs for ice cream.  Except the Store 24 around the corner was inexplicably closed, so we hopped in his car and drove across the river to a 24-hour White Hen Pantry, then back to my apartment.  We will go to great lengths for ice cream.

Who is more jealous?
Probably me, but I don’t think I’m especially so.

How long did it take to get serious?
Almost no time at all.  I think we’d been together two or three weeks when I told my friend Marci that I would marry him.

Who eats more?
We both do, though M almost never has breakfast but is more likely to make himself pasta at 1:30 in the morning.  See previous question on sleep habits.

Who does the laundry?
Me, and I tend to prefer it that way.  M helps when asked.  Except I have to be really specific.  If I go to bed and ask him to get the laundry out of the dryer before he comes up, he will do exactly that.  And I will come down in the morning (with two cranky toddlers demanding breakfast) to find the previous night’s laundry crammed into the basket, wrinkled and unfolded.  So now I have to say “will you please get the laundry from the dryer and fold it.”

Who’s better with the computer?
Well, M does computer networking for a living and is really quite good at it.  I’m no slump in that arena, but he takes the cake.

Who drives when you are together?
Depends what car we’re driving, or what time of day.  The minivan is almost all me, the Jetta is almost all him.  But if it’s early in the morning, I’ll probably drive.  If it’s after dark, it’s all M.  I get road hypnosis and have a hard time staying awake.