Yet another form of survival... Thanksgiving with the in-laws.

Dylside said:
I'm in the works right now of trying to talk Sarah and her mother into letting her father and I go hiking by the fossil quarry. Sarah seems ok with it...then she says, "how long are you guys going to be gone... like an hour os so?" and of course like an honest idiot I say, "more like half a day." then she gets quiet. We'll see. Maybe I can talk them into it.
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Go to the quarry, and tell them that you are doing it for a poor forumite who really enjoyed field paleontology until he moved to central California. There are no decent pre-cenozoic fossil locations less than a five or six hour drive from me. Do they have good trilobites at the quarry? Get some and send them my way. Along with any horn corals, crinoids, and brachiopods you find. If I am not mistaken, most of that area is Ordovician.

If you can get the father-in-law to go, then you can just tell your wife that you are bonding with her father, what's wrong with that?
 
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misanthropist said:
Man, all I can say is I would just leave. Let the women sit around and talk...that's women's work. You guys are doing it all wrong if you are asking to leave, they will never agree. Make plans and leave. That's what I'd do...8 years into a happy relationship and I am sure part of the happiness relates to the fact that I don't take any guff about anything, ever.
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Hey mis, must be an American thing! :confused: I agree with you 100%. I firmly believe everybody has the right to do anything they want as long as they don't hurt anybody else in the doing, and I'm not talking about imagined hurt. That's not to say that you can't consider others feelings.

Dylside, if you really need to suck up to your wife, tell her that you and her dad getting away by yourselves for a few hours, will allow you to better get to know one another - something that doesn't happen when everybody is about, and if she really believes in 'one big happy family' then she should be fine with you and 'Dad' taking off for a hike or whatever. I hope this doesn't sound too critical.......... but hey, why does everything have to be her way?

Doc (possibly an old curmudgeon and misogynist :confused:)
 
I totally disagree with the notion that there is something inherent in males that predisposes us to outdoors activities and something inherent in females that predisposes them to sitting around. I have known many women who make me look like a shut-in when it comes to wilderness experience, and many men who would slip into a coma if disconnected from their Blackberries for more than a few hours.

No such thing as "women's work", either, IMHO.

Call me new-fashioned if you want.

- Mike
 
That's too funny. I live in Ohio and have some family in Alpharetta.
Seriously, make up any excuse to run an errand and volunteer to take your father in law with you. Don't come back for several hours. If the head guy is with you, how much trouble could you really be in? Best advice my father in law gave me was it is is always better to ask for forgiveness than it is for permission.
 
ejes said:
I HEAR YA BROTHER; only it is law enforcement with me. They always relay a story of their most recent contact with another officer and try to get me to play judge and jury or they want the war stories. Uhhhgggg. I just keep my snot locker buried in a plate of sweet potato pie so I can't speak. I usually sneak away with the kids for a walk to "burn of what I ate" in the afternoon. The kids are usually ready to get out of the house too as apparently it just isn't Thanksgiving or Christmas unless the house is full of people and 95 degrees. Ya gotta love'em though. :D
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Man I hear that. I do the same thing!!

Dude my wifes family keeps that wood stove burning like a inferno of hell. Its dry, and 2,000,764.9 degrees in there.
 
OMG - I'm glad I'm not the only one.... My in-laws keep the house at 1000 degrees, it's insane. People laugh at me because I show up there in short sleeves in the dead of winter, but I'm the only one that's not stripping down a few hours later when then realize they have 7 to many layers on :)

Turn the heat down BEFORE people come over.
 
Drink beer and watch football while at the house. Give this "holiday" the respect it deserves! Then, head out early on Black Friday to go "shopping", and miraculously end up at your quarry. You can stop by a Radio Shack on the way back in and have a new cell phone accessory or a RC car or something to show for your time away. Take pops with you, and you'll be safe. You can then say how insane the lines were at Best Buy, and that plasma you really wanted was snagged by the guy 11 people ahead.
 
GREAT NEWS!

So Sarah was on the phone with her mother last night and I guess Sarah told her that I had said that I wished I could go hiking or canoeing down the river or something instead of sitting around. Surprizingly, her mother said, "then he and Tom will go canoeing!" Sarah said that she could tell that her mother turned to my dad-in-law and said, "you want to go canoeing with Dylan?" and apparently he almost screamed like a woman with excitement. Sarah said, "Well... I kinda wanted everyone to be together in one place spending time with each other." Sarah's mom replied, "Look... If Dylan goes canoeing, then that means I don't have to. Tom bought that canoe in the Spring and I've been refusing ever since. He still hasn't gotten to use the damn thing. If Dylan doesn't go, I will eventually have to. So, THEY ARE GOING."

SWEET! This might be the best trip to the in-laws' we've taken!
 
I don't know what you owe your mother in law, but you owe her something.
 
Nice move Dyl, get the WIFE to bring it up, you are learning the ways of manipulation...I mean marriage. :D

Enjoy the trip and take some pics.
 
Thanks for reminding me to take the camera. I hadn't packed it. [writing that down on the hand]
 
misanthropist said:
Man, all I can say is I would just leave. Let the women sit around and talk...that's women's work. You guys are doing it all wrong if you are asking to leave, they will never agree. Make plans and leave. That's what I'd do...8 years into a happy relationship and I am sure part of the happiness relates to the fact that I don't take any guff about anything, ever.
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Bushman5 said:
I dont let anyone dictate what i can or cannot do when i want to do it.

nuff said.
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Agree. Congrats on the fun you are now going to have, but seriously, you were just going to sit around because that's what the ladies want to do? Think of all the fun you would have, memories you'd make, AND FUTURE STORIES TO SHARE, if you ALL got out and did something, anything!! :D
 
Pretend to have a good time. Try to give an emotional lift to your inlaws and Wifey by complimenting them, telling them how much you like blah blah, and in turn you will lift your own spirits. Be thankful - its actually allowed on Thanksgiving. You can really change your outlook by bending your emotions to fit your will. I can assure you that when your inlaws are gone, you will look back fondly on this time.

:thumbup:
 
At the risk of being a smug git, I don't suffer any of this. I wouldn't subject anyone else to it and I require the same of them. Happily it has never been an issue. Although should it be I think I would refer them to RTFM, in which, if memory serves correctly, I penned in a clause on page two about responding antagonistically to being treated as an ornament. Bushcraft is indeed a polymorphous concept.
 
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