Debasement Tapes

I think I’ve mentioned that my first introduction to blogs was actually personal finance blogs. I recently read a post/article about Asian culture and how once they have jobs, the kids give their parents money regularly to “pay them back” for raising them. This baffles me. I look at my family and find it amusing. My paternal grandfather is a bit senile and does occasionally ask my father for money when he’s strapped. Depending on his reasoning, my father does often give him some, but he is extremely put out by it. He once told me that his financial goal is not to give me an inheritance, but to never have to ask me for money. My father typically gives good-sized monetary gifts at birthdays and Christmas (and at our wedding – he paid off one of my student loans for a wedding gift in addition to paying for ½ my wedding), but I cannot picture myself giving him money for a gift, even if I knew he was saving for something big. (My father rarely does this – he’s more of the type of “I want it, I’ll get it for myself”). I cannot see giving my mom money for a gift, either – a gift card, sure, but not money. My husband’s family, on the other hand, has no qualms about giving money towards a larger purchase (though, by my family’s standards, they are pretty cheap and a large purchase would often take multiple birthdays, Christmas and Mother’s day to scrounge up enough cash to get something). I have a real issue giving parents money – I feel weird doing it because in my family, it was always the other way around. Even more so, I would feel weird giving my parents a monthly gift of money. Maybe I would feel differently if I had tons of money and they didn’t. I’m not sure. It just seems like parents should be allowed to give the kids money to help them out, even if it's a gift, but awkward for it to work the other way around.

In cycle news, I think I may have ovulated yesterday, because I’m starting to doubt if I read .28 or .08 on my thermometer. I had a temp jump this AM and with my – OPK last night, I’m thinking that’s what happened. I’m taking one more OPK tonight to determine if last night’s was just weird or not. I’m hoping I O-ed already since tonight is very busy and we might not have time to BD.

I finally got to see this week’s episode of Veronica Mars last night online (did I mention that our DVR had a melt down and I missed all of our shows this week? I was totally bummed). I wasn’t crazy about the Veronica/Piz storyline from last week – Piz is nice and all, but seemed a little puppy dogish with regards to Veronica – but last night’s episode made me like him more. The end scene with them together made me remember what it was like to be at the beginning of a relationship, to have it just light up your face, etc. (today's title is the title of the VM episode).