Evil Al

Mrs A. and I have a very strong relatioship. It has to be strong to get through the crap we have been through in the last five years.

Mind you, our relationship is no storybook "They lived Happily Ever After". I think our culture unfairly sets us up when they sucker us in with fairytails and then dump us out in the street. No two people can live under the same roof without having disagreements occasionally. Unless one of them is overmedicated.

Mrs A and I argue about how to raise kids. She loves structure. It is her way of dealing with an uncertain world. It works for her, and it is a perfectly valid approach.

However it is not mine. I think it is a matter of confidence. I am not afraid of the world. Because of all the stuff I have been through and escaped intact if not unscathed, my attitude is more or less "Bring it on". I am not a worrier, I take stuff as it comes. That doesn't mean I have no alternative plans ready, just that once I make up my mind, I don't worry about things. I don't attempt to impose a whole lot os structure because it is just too damn much work and has no guaranteed result. I set pretty loose rules.

It drives Mrs A. nuts.

V's room has become increasingly chaotic over the last couple of months. This is partly because he was in the swimming and debate and gone most of the time.

When I went up to his room Saturday night to tell him something, the stench hit me. His room had passed it's pull date and gone over the boundaries of acceptable behavior.

I went in and told him "Your room stinks, and you stink. Tomorrow you will clean. You will not get on the computer or the X-box or any other game system."

Carol and I got up Sunday morning and went to church, then I took her out to a very fancy Restaraunt for lunch.

Can you guess where V was when I got home?

That's right, he was in his room playing on the computer.

"V., I thought I told you not to get on the computer until your room was clean!"

"Oops, I forgot."

"Reach over and turn that thing off."

"Can't I finish this $%^&."

"No, Turn it off."

"Can I use it to listen to music?"

"No. In fact reach around the back and take off the power cord and give it to me."

"WHAT?"

"You heard me, do it now. You will get it back when your room is clean to my satisfaction."

(Cell phone rings)

"Uh, I'll have to call you back."

"No shit Sherlock, hand over the cell phone."

"But why?"

"Because it belongs to me and I am taking it until you clean your room"

"That's ballocks!"

"One more word and I confiscate the X-Box, then the stereo, then the TV, so shut your yap."

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!