In honor of the Phillies win last week, I'd like to share a few small victories of my own:

Game 1: Tara vs. Heater
It started to get cold here a couple weeks ago (not to worry, it's back up to the mid-70's this week). Night temperatures were down in the 30's outside and in the 50's in our house. It was nearly impossible to get out of bed in the morning. We had the timer on our thermostat all set so that the heat would keep the house comfortable for us, but no matter how low the temperature went it wasn't cutting on. Clearly something was wrong. I mentioned it to my coworker Matt who happens to live in the same neighborhood as me in a house built by the same builder with all the same builder-supplied appliances. He said they had had the same problem and told me what he did. Jamie and I went home for lunch that afternoon and I went out to the garage to fiddle with it. And lo and behold! I made it work! I was giddy with excitment the rest of the afternoon. There's something about being female and fixing something around the house that's so empowering (to be fair, there may be something about being male and fixing something around the house that's so empowering, too. But I've never been male and so I can't comment on that).
Tara - 1 Heater - 0

Game 2: Tara vs. Jamie's Hair
As long as I've known him, Jamie has refused to get his hair cut at an actual salon because he's too cheap to pay for it. His mom has cut it his whole life. Unfortunately, he now lives several hundred miles away from his mom and his hair needs to be cut more than once every few months. And I refuse to do it. I have my reasons. So the cycle has gone like this: hair looks great and is at the perfect length, hair gets too long, hair gets RIDICULOUSLY too long, I beg him to go get it cut, he insists he can do it himself, I beg some more, he shaves it all off. Which makes me sad because I prefer him unbald. But this weekend, I prevailed! Our house was a little messy before Jamie's surgery. After his surgery he was not contributing at all to the housekeeping (slacker) and I was so caught up in providing him with excellent care that I didn't have time to clean. Or I was just using his surgery as an excuse not to clean. It's all in how you look at it. Anyway, our house was gross and needed to be cleaned thoroughly. Every room. So the plan we devised was after church on Sunday he would straighten every room and I would follow along behind doing the actual cleaning - dusting, vacuuming, etc. Well his hair was well beyond the ridiculously long stage. So when we got home he started straightening and I said, "You don't have to clean at all anymore if you'll do one thing for me: go get your hair cut." Now Jamie is really good about helping me around the house. But he HATES it. He hates to clean. So I thought this was a pretty good offer. But he was ready with a counter offer: He said he'd go for it if he could also play Age of Empires for a couple hours when he got back (I hate that game. With a passion. But that's another story for another time). Ok, deal.

As I cleaned the entire house by myself that afternoon (it took me over 4 hours) while a sharply groomed Jamie played video games and watched TV, I couldn't decide whether I'd won or lost. I guess at the end of the day, his hair was cut and the house was cleaner than it's been in a long while. So...Go team!
Tara and Jamie - 1 Dirty House and Too Long Hair - 0

Overall score: Tara and Jamie - 3, The Forces That Are Against Us (namely the heater, the messy house and Jamie's out of control hair) - 0

I guess we're ahead in the series so far. Unfortunately, I have no idea how many games we have to win before the trophy's ours.