fine, just fine...

the weather here in steamy st. louis has broken (for a bit, at least) and the high today is only going to be 86 degrees. how wonderfully cool that temp is! i woke up this morning and upon walking to my car actually thought that it was chilly. makes me look forward to autumn...and sweaters...and boots...and wool.

ahhhh, lovely, lanolin-y, wool. i have a deep and abiding love for the stuff. i adore it in all its forms...fabric, roving, yarn (oh, yarn especially); and just the heady smell of it sends me into a swoon.

my mate, however, is highly allergic. can't. stand. it. when he accompanies me on my MANY trips to the thrift store to procure more and more and more wool sweaters for felting, he can help me pick them out, but he cannot lift them onto the counter or remove them from the bag when we return home. and what's more, when i've finished felting them in the family washing machine, i had better run a load or two through of car washing towels. please don't ask me how i know that kelly is just as allergic to microscopic clean wool lint as he is to the full-sized pre-washed stuff. it's not a pretty story.

and it all makes me think of the million ways he and i are different...
*i love to drink coffee....mmmm, coffee; kelly can't stand the stuff;
*i wouldn't eat a ding dong if you paid me $25; kelly eats two every day with his lunch;
*same thing for bologna, hot dogs, cheeto's and kentucky fried chicken; of course, kelly couldn't keep down a spoonful of nonfat plain yogurt if his life depended upon it;
*i'm high fashion; kelly's khaki's and a button down shirt all weekdays-strictly jeans on the weekends;
* i don't really like tv; kelly sits down with the tv guide on sunday and plots out his plan for the upcoming 7 days;
*science fiction bores me; that's all that man reads.

but we're also alike in some ways...
*we both love italian food...pasta tuttomare is our favorite dish;
*we love to watch the wildlife in our backyard;
*we enjoy doing everyday, mundane tasks more than is normal (we love to stand shoulder to shoulder at the sink and wash and dry a bunch of dirty dishes);
*we love going to see live music (although i don't "get" jethro tull, i will go see ian anderson perform live);
*we like a long walk, bike ride or canoe trip;
*we LOVE to watch our son play sports (although we really aren't sports lovers);
*we are both movie fanatics. if you're around us for very long, you'll most likely be subjected to a dialogue in which one of us quotes a movie line that may or may not be in the context of the present conversation...i assure you we will both crack up and ask the other, "what movie is that from?"
*we adore one another to distraction.

it's the similarities that brought us together, but it's the differences that keep it interesting. that is why when we got home from our anniversary dinner last night and i came back into the living room (after slipping into something stretchy to accommodate all the chicken spedini i had consumed), it touched my heart so when i saw what kelly had turned onto the tv for our evening's entertainment...the. miss. teen. usa. pageant.

he really knows the way to my heart.