The exercise and doing one thing a day to make my wife happy has been going so so. I wanted to lose another 10 pounds or so, but haven't been putting as much effort into it as I think I should despite trying to exercise a little every day. I need to step it up if I want to impress my wife with a slimmer me upon her return. I resolve to put more effort into it, and I will let you all know how it goes on the next actions post. Perhaps a daily log of food intake vs exercise?

As for the one thing a day, I have started the sending of the cards and will be continuing for another 15 days or so until I have sent them all. I emailed my wife with the general happenings in my life, and of course sent my love. All of which is tempered by not really being able to see my wife's reaction to anything. I hope she likes the effort I am putting forth, we shall have to see upon her return.

Since I cannot think of much more to do, as usual I have turned to myself for improvement. I guess I am one of those self help/self improvement nuts. I enjoy trying to learn/acquire new skills. It is something I think simply adds to who we are as people, the more we can do the more we are. I once spent six months (every day off) with a man who has become a good friend helping him build his house from the ground up. I did this to gain skills in carpentry, construction, and general house building/repair.

In the past I have also bought and studied some other books which I thought would help me to make my wife happier. These have ranged from relationship psychology books (not really sure these actually helped) to books about the female body, and how best to stimulate and pleasure women. I think as a man this is very important to study since I don't think most father son relationships in America really cover it. My parents left most of it to the public education system, which great idea is to give you anatomical charts and then make you carry a 10 pound bag of flour around to make you understand what will happen if you get a girl pregnant.

Anyway for the men reading, or the women who want to buy to leave it where they might see it, I do recommend the book 'She comes First' by Ian Kerner. It is a must read. Continuing in that direction today I picked up a book about massage. While I considered myself no slouch in this department, I can't say I have really gone out of my way to give my wife massages. Often she complains about being ticklish and declines the massage.

However last year on her return from Japan instead of waiting for her arrival I jumped on a flight and surprised her at the connecting city. While there I had rented a car and scheduled a hour long massage at a local spa. I then took my daughter to the Zoo and we had a good time while my wife got the stress of a long flight from Japan with our daughter rubbed out of her system. I wasn't sure how it would go since I know how ticklish she always seemed to be whenever I tried to do the same. However lo and behold she had an amazing experience and was very happy.

All of this tells me, it is not a massage that my wife dislikes, but rather my massage skills are not up to par. So I bought 'Massage, mind and body' by Larry Costa and will be studying it for my wife's return. Once I have had an adequate amount of time to study it and decide how best to apply what is inside I will write a review of the book and whether it was worth the fifteen dollar investment.

As always I am doing this to make Her Happy.

Each summer I send my wife to Japan. She is from there and I see it as a way to allow her some stress relief from having to spend the other 10 months of the year speaking English (she is very good). I also go for a week to visit family and eat at some amazing restraunts.

This break allows us some time apart (which I dislike), and for some introspection time into the nature of our relationship. However the purpose of this post is not about thoughts, but rather action. Since my wife is away, I have to consider how can I let her know she is in my thoughts? How can I let her know I love and miss her? What can I do each day while she is gone to add to the bank?

I think I can break it down into two categories. The first would be interactions with her, through email, letters, phone calls, or maybe even a package from a local japanese flower shop? The other would be actions I could take in the home and have ready for her when she returns.

Since she is not here at the moment today I will try to do a little of both since I have the time. For things here I will exercise each day for 30 mins. My thoughts are that being in good shape means being healthy, better stamina, better body shape, possibly better sex, sick less often, etc. I also think that it is a good start for learning a new habit. After all doing at least one thing a day is going to have to become a habit, and I am going to have to learn how to establish new habits right?

As for something that has an interaction with her each day, I think today
I shall write a hand written letter telling her, well I think you know what. As for tomorrow and the next day we shall have to see what I come up with. I will keep a log and tell you how successful I have been with each goal when I get the opportunity.

Hopefully, these new habits will make her happy.