I Know My Husband

A couple of my experiences:

Spencer hates our vacuum. He gets out the Consumer Reports. He reads everything he can find. He goes online and finds everything he can read about the top three models. Then he reads about 400 bazillion consumer comments about those vacuums. Then he starts taking trips to the vacuum aisle in every. single. store we ever enter. Depending on how stressed he feels financially, this can last months. Or days. Then he starts the real pressure on me. And depending on how stressed I feel financially, this can last days or months. And finally we purchase a vacuum that will probably last through the Millennium. Or longer.

We talk about maybe getting Taylor an MP3 player for Christmas. Spencer visits every website, every MP3 chat blog, every store. He chooses the perfect MP3 player and we buy it. Even though our child may want something different ("They'll love it when they see it!" And they do.).

Spencer thinks Briana should have her own car. Since he already knows what makes of car he wants, we skip to the shopping. Every website that sells cars between Montana and California gets checked, with emphasis on Craig's List and KSL in Salt Lake City. And the surrounding area. Which might mean Boise or Las Vegas--ya never really know. He finds a car in Heber. He drives up there and looks at it. It's a good car. The miles are relatively low. It has a great safety rating. I tell him no--she hasn't graduated. He finds a car in Layton. He wants me to drive up there to look at it. I tell him no, she hasn't graduated. He finds a car in West Valley. He goes and looks at it. I tell him no, she hasn't graduated. We're at a lacrosse banquet, and he is on his Blackberry, checking out cars on ksl.com (because what else would you be doing at a lacrosse banquet?). He finds a car. She has graduated. We leave the banquet early so we can look at the car. It is $100 over our (my) budget. He talks the seller down $50. I cave, and we buy a car for Briana. It's a good car.

There is a pattern here. He shops. And shops. And shops. And in the end, we get.

This is a very good thing when you need a good vacuum cleaner. It's a good thing when you want to find a good, reliable, inexpensive car for your teenage daughter. But once Spencer gets the bug, the end result is the same: we buy it.

Today Spencer sent me a link for a house in a neighboring valley. Does this make anyone else nervous?