Baby Names and The Vegetable Brush Marriage Theory

[same_sky]

M and I had a touching little scene this weekend, whereby we were laying in bed in the morning, M with his hand on my belly. We were laughing at the busy baby while talking about what we're going to name her. People keep asking, you know, and we keep not having an answer. That's actually kind of nice right now because that way I'm not lying about it, but it's harder to say, face to face, that we're not planning on telling anyone what we decide, than it sounds when I write it here. Anyway, we do have a few possibles now. I spontaneously came up with a first name/middle name combo this weekend that sounds really nice, and then we realized that the poor child's initials would be a word. Not a bad word, just a word, and I'm just not so sure she would thank us for that. M and I both really, really like a certain name that we just don't think we can use. We want to, but can pretty clearly envision how everyone would make fun of us. Then M has one name that he has always liked, and I like it too--but I'm not sure I like it enough for a first name. But at last, I am looking forward to giving the duckling a name. I have been feeling like it was an overwhelming, impossible task until the last few days.

Tonight was Take Back the Kitchen night, and I managed to drag myself in there and clean everything. It's M's job to do the dishes, but he's spent all his free time working on the bedroom, so we've been accumulating the special items that won't go into the dishwasher. And believe me, everything goes into the dishwasher if it will fit at all, unless if it's made of wood. M has a thing about wood items in a dishwasher. He swears that it can cause a house fire, so he won't let me put so much as a wooden spoon in the dishwasher. (I haven't pointed out that two of our knives have wooden handles, because he puts those in.) Our dishwasher here is fantastic--the one we had at the apartment before we moved sucked so much that I really wished we didn't even have it sometimes. I have a pet peeve about reaching into a cabinet and pulling out a dirty dish, and M doesn't have the correct DNA to inspect dishes thoroughly before putting them away. Apparently. Doing dishes by hand is not that bad if you do it as seldom as I do. It's so nice and clean! Of course, I failed to make a salad, which is part of the reason I was heading in there to begin with, but one can't have everything. Clean kitchen, or food to eat...

I don't think I ever got around to expounding upon my Vegetable Brush Marriage Theory, so here's the quick version, with resolution. We have a white vegetable brush with a long handle. It's not a vegetable brush at all, actually--it's a dish brush. M only washes dishes with those brushes. He doesn't like this one for some reason, so we started using it for scrubbing potatoes. Because it's a food item, the logical thing is to put said brush into the drawer with all manner of special utensils, right? No. No, not at all, apparently. The logical thing is to take it out of the dishwasher and throw it behind the faucet nozzle with the dish brush. (I wasn't crazy about his storage location for that, either, but I pick my battles, you know?) Because--it's a brush, and one brush should go with the other brush, and he liked to put one brush on the counter so let's put the other one there too!

It drove me quietly crazy. It was such a small thing that I didn't mention it, other than to tell him that it didn't go there now and then when he asked where the brush had gone (when I put it away.) So, one day, I was puttering around in the kitchen and it occurred to me that M was not going to change his habits. He has a mental block on this dish/vegetable brush. I could either simmer quietly until I snapped at him over something so stupid that it would be truly embarrassing, or I could get over it somehow. That's when I came up with a novel plan to buy a real vegetable brush. They're ridiculously cheap, and without a long handle... which isn't good for scrubbing potatoes anyway... then he won't get them confused, and he will put the brush in the drawer and we will both be happy.

There's my marriage theory, in a nutshell--two people expending energy trying to figure out ways to not let the stupid things bother them, and also, remove the dirt from their favorite root vegetables all at the same time. I think that's why we get along so well--we are always trying to make sure that the other one is content.

But then, there's also the fact that M and I have really warped senses of humor at times. Feeling pleased with myself, I explained this theory to M and we expounded at length as to the ways this is a metaphor for all sorts of marriages and issues. This was not long before Christmas, so I had actually just asked Mom to buy me one for my stocking. At the end of this discussion, we ended up coming to an accord on the Dish Brush Issue--in the meantime, we would just put a weird little vase that my parents bought us on the counter, and we would store the dish brushes in there, so they would always have a place to go that was not on the kitchen counter, then he could put the upcoming vegetable brush in the drawer, and then we would both be satisfied! It was a fine moment in marriage, I tell you.

And then we brought home our new little vegetable brush after Christmas. It's small and round and cute, and, as soon as M put it away for the first time--he stuck the damned thing in the vase just to irritate me.

So my new marriage theory is that you should pick out someone who drives you crazy but always makes you laugh. I did a very fine job indeed on that one, so I'm learning to live with wonky dish brush placement.

Comments

[e11en.livejournal.com]

Hahahahaha! Perfect! And so true about not having the DNA to properly inspect dishes before putting them away.

I simply refused to allow a brush to be used on the dishes. Brushes are for vegetables, not dishes. In truth, my thing against the dish brush is that it was used so ineffectively by G (and Farmor - which is where he learned how to use it) that I told him we just don't have them here. Besides a dish cloth (preferably a Handi-Wipe) holds the soap better.

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

We've found them in a few weird places, but several of the ones we've used have been bought in Sweden because it's almost the truth that we just don't have them here. I don't exactly mind the brush usage except I want it run through the dishwasher after every use, and he doesn't really think it's necessary. He usually does pretty well with the actual scrubbing. Having said that, I definitely agree that dish cloths (and I think the ones I use are handi-wipes, too--I just know 'em when I see 'em... really thin, with small holes?) are superior for dishes, especially plates and glasses and goodness gracious, silverware. But I don't feel strongly enough about it to insist upon it, knowing that the dish duty would then be returned to me. ;)

[mayna.livejournal.com]

Anything behind the faucet attracts mold and mildew so I have to remove anything that gets shoved there AND I have to daily use a towel on that area. And we still have mold and mildew there. :-(

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

Luckily, we don't have any trouble with mold and mildew behind the faucet, but it was definitely a sanitary issue that made me want him to not put stuff there. I can imagine that would be very frustrating!

BananaFanaFofana

[blookum.livejournal.com]

Oh, and to add another wrench in the works, consider when she gets MARRIED some day! If she decides to take her husband's name, she adds his initial so see you have to see if that could spell something...

My maiden initials: ALH. If I had married one of the fellows I dated before my husband... I could've been ALF, ALT, ALM, ALL...

...heh.

I think it'll be okay if it spells something as long as it isn't embarrassing. I always wanted to name a daughter after my mother, but she has a really unusual name so I thought I'd use it as a middle name. My choice? Elizabeth Zuela. It took me a WHILE to notice her initials would be EZ.

EZ. Isn't that just ASKING for trouble? You may as well pay for the tattoo across the lower back.

Re: BananaFanaFofana

[e11en.livejournal.com]

My initials growing up were ET. Let me tell you that when the movie came out, life changed. My 10th grade geometry teacher thought calling me ET the whole year was just the funniest thing ever. And being told to "phone home" got old fast.

So even if you give your child a name that seems fine at the time, you never know when Steven Spielberg will get it into his head to make a movie about an alien and your life will change forever (or until you change your name).

I chose my confirmation name in the interest of making my initials spell a word. It would only have worked out if I married someone whose last name began with a Y though. Oh well.

Re: BananaFanaFofana

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

ET! Ha! That's a good one. ;) Come to think of it, I did spend a bit of time as a kid trying to figure out what last name I needed to marry in order to get closer to a word. It would never have worked, though, because I have always been KLG. KLA? KLE? KLI? Not so much on the word thing, unless I divorced and remarried a bunch of times and kept all of the initials, and even then, it would be highly questionable with the KL masquerading as CL. ;) So I guess maybe it's not all that objectionable to a kid. Unless that word is ET...

Re: BananaFanaFofana

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

Great, something else to worry about! Although I have now been informed that it's a good thing if initials make a word. I guess I shouldn't worry about it as long as it isn't FAG or something. (Actually, G isn't too bad as a last initial as far as three-letter bad words go, now that I think about it... that's the only one I can think of right off hand.)

[courtesy.livejournal.com]

Dear nutters, why do you have to scrub potatoes anyway?? Doesn't a rinse under a tap do it?? I don't even do that because, mostly, they go in water to be cooked which cleans them. Or, they come out of a plastic bag from the supermarket and look clean already.

If you decide not to go with the name that you think you would both get teased a lot for you must promise to tell us what it is....

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

Did you forget who you were talking to? The one who can't even stand to put a spoon on top of a package because of all teh germs? ;) No, seriously, maybe there is a difference in our concept of the dirtiness of a potato, because these potatoes (standard potatoes of the starchy variety--the type that would be baked, which is exactly what I had for dinner last night and probably what inspired this post) are very dirty and somewhat gritty on the outside, and can't go into water whole to be cooked anyway because they're too big. From what you said, are you thinking of the small ones? They're not as dirty, no, but I always scrub them anyway because.. they grow in dirt, and that's.. I don't know. What you do to a potato. :)

Because I care, I will not add any commentary learned from the produce market about what can happen at the store, so you can continue to think that they're clean if they look clean... ahem. :)

I almost told what the name that we can't use was last night, and then M and I discussed it again and re-decided that we just really can't use it, so I'll probably tell what it is--not sure when. Need to discuss it with M to make sure, just in case.

[carrieb.livejournal.com]

Spelling a word with initials is a good thing! It means you're a lucky person if your initials spell a word. At least that's what I grew up thinking. My grandma specifically named her children so their names would spell something. Paw isnt too bad, but my poor uncle is Raw. I always wished my initials spelled something.

Love the theory. So, so true.

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

I guess it wouldn't be too bad if your initials spelled a word, it just sounds weird to me. It's better now that I know it's a good thing! :) But then again, how much are initials really used? Of course, I'm saying that while at work, where we use initials for everything to identify our files, so perhaps that's not a good assumption. Hmm.

[ozswede.livejournal.com]

My best friend at school was Pamela Irene Stanton. It was fashionable in those days to have your initials in gold lettering on your leather school bag and she got a lot of flack for going around with PIS on her bag. As did Vincent Dalton, though that sounds okay in Swedish, but not so good in English :)

So my new marriage theory is that you should pick out someone who drives you crazy but always makes you laugh.

So it sounds like L-G made the right choice.

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

Yikes! Those would not be good initials to have, I agree.

Although my point was that *I* had made the right choice, M really did, too, so L-G isn't alone. He never admits it when I am driving him crazy, although he gives me this look, as if to say, "Woman, I have been washing my hands properly for more than three decades. YOU DO NOT NEED TO TELL ME THIS." (I always pretend not to notice.) Thankfully, he thinks I am hilarious, so it works out.