Fifth Cause

Couples getting pre-marriage counseling are advised to work out four key areas before they tie the knot.

Coming to an agreement about money issues is first, because money fights and money problems are the number one cause of divorce.

After that, you need to agree on kids (whether to have them and how to raise them), in-laws (how to set boundaries and make sure you don't end up living too close to them for comfort), and religion.

Once you have those four areas worked out, it's said, you have a much greater chance of keeping a marriage together.

Well, i've decided there needs to be a fifth area of agreement before marriage.

How to handle it if the two of you end up having to share one car.

Since the van went down for the count, i've come to realize that most two parent families in this country have two cars because sharing one will make you want to either commit hari kiri or help your spouse do so.

This is especially true when you have to be at a certain place by a specific time, and your spouse keeps forgetting to come home with the vehicle. Easily distracted, anyone?

And for heaven's sake, if you are sharing a vehicle, take your phone and turn it on. Nothing is worse than an emergency where you have to have the car and spouse is out lollygagging with the phone turned off.

We may have a break in the situation, though. Sweetie earned a bit of extra money doing side work for Big Boss. Young Jake, who knows enough about cars to change easy things like starters and has worked on our cars some before is going to come give it a try. It certainly can't hurt, we will be no worse off if the starter isn't the problem. (At first we thought alternator. We have since been told differently.)

Keep fingers crossed, we may be back in business by late Saturday afternoon.

Otherwise, i may read up on hari kiri.


Today is:

Bonza Bottler Day

Echigo Urasa Bishamondo Hadakaoshiai Taisai -- Niigata-ken, Japan (traditional festival to ask for a good harvest)

Hina-nagashi Matsuri -- Awashima Jinja Temple, Uto, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan (Dolls Festival, a/k/a Girl's Day; hina dolls sent from around the country are floated down to sea)

Iditarod Sled Dog Race begins -- Anchorage to Nome, AK, US

I Want You to be Happy Day -- a day to devote some time to making someone else truly happy about something

If Pets Had Thumbs Day -- because if you are going to imagine something silly today, it might as well be this

International Omega-3 Awareness Day

Kaziukas Fair -- Vilnius, Lithuania, through tomorrow (traditional craft fair dates back to the 17th century)

Liberation Day -- Bulgaria

Marriage of the March Nymphs -- Fairy Calendar

Martyr's Day -- Malawi

Mother's Day -- Georgia

National Anthem Day -- US (current US anthem adopted this date in 1931)

National Cold Cuts Day -- Heart-Accelerating & Sodium-Enriched, yum!

National Mulled Wine Day

Peach Blossom Day - coincides with the start of the Peach Blossom Festival around this time of year in Hunan, China, where you celebrate the beauty of peach blossoms, and girls celebrate being girls

Sportsmen's Day -- Egypt

Stop Bad Service Day -- spread around the internet by someone who got lousy service

St. Cunegunda's Day (Patron of Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland)

St. Winnal's Day (First comes David, Next comes Chad, Then comes Winnal, roaring mad! -- Traditional English saying about the storminess of March 3; St. Winwaloe or Winnal was the Christianized version of the Teutonic Aegir, god of the sea and controller of weather)

Swamp Buggy Races -- Naples, Florida (the world famous swamp buggy races; through tomorrow)

Thanks to the Maple Festival -- Iroquois (date approximate, held when sap began flowing, usually early March)


Birthdays Today:

Jackie Joyner-Kersee, 1962
Herschel Walker, 1962
Ira Glass, 1959
Doc Watson, 1923
Diana Barrymore, 1921
James Doohan, 1920
Jean Harlow, 1911
Alexander Graham Bell, 1847


Anniversaries Today:

Colegio Militar of Portugal is founded, 1803
Florida becomes the 27th US state, 1845


Today in History:

The Statute of Rhuddlan incorporates the Principality of Wales into England, 1284
The Olympic Theatre, designed by Andrea Palladio, is inaugurated in Vicenza, 1585
The first amphibious landing of the United States Marine Corps begins the Battle of Nassau, 1776
The first US Jewish governor, David Emanuel, takes office in Georgia, 1801
The US declares war on Algeria for taking US prisoners and demanding tribute, 1815
The Missouri Compromise, an attempt to keep the US half Slave and half free, is passed by the US Congress, 1820
The Battle of Pelee Island takes place, Ontario, Canada, 1838
Tsar Alexander II emancipates the serfs of Russia, 1861
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, the founding member of the HSBC Group, opens, 1865
The first ever organized indoor game of ice hockey is played in Montreal, Canada as recorded in The Montreal Gazette, 1875
Georges Bizet's opera Carmen receives its première at the Opéra Comique in Paris, 1875
Bulgaria regains its independence from Ottoman Empire, 1878
Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood becomes the first female attorney to argue before the US Supreme Court, 1879
The US Geological Survey is created, 1879
Anne Sullivan arrives to begin teaching Helen Keller, 1887
Tsar Nicholas II of Russia agrees to create an elected assembly, the Duma, 1905
Toronto's Dr Banting & Dr Best announce discovery of insulin, 1921
Time Magazine begins publication, 1923
The United States officially adopts The Star-Spangled Banner as its national anthem, 1931
Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia, 1938
In Mumbai, Mohandas Gandhi begins to fast in protest of the autocratic rule in India, 1939
Jackie Brenston, with Ike Turner and his band, records "Rocket 88", often cited as "the first rock and roll record", at Sam Phillips' recording studios in Memphis, Tennessee, 1951
An amateur video captures the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers, 1991
The tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere, Sky Tower in downtown Auckland, New Zealand, opens after two-and-a-half years of construction, 1997
Citizens of Switzerland narrowly vote in favor of their country becoming a member of the United Nation, 2002
Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly an airplane non-stop around the world solo without refueling, 2005