Who knew you guys were so into baby food? You’re like my own personal Wikipedia… AND I LOVE YOU.

Recently Matt has picked up a new hobby. Because he needed a new hobby, seeing as his upright bass, rock climbing equipment and woodworking tools get so much use. The boy is notorious for picking up expensive hobbies that require a lot of gear, including the motorcycle he’ll be getting for his birthday later this month. Then he puts all kinds of time into them at the beginning mysteriously running out of that time later on. The crossword puzzle at the back of National Geographic seems to suck up all that extra time.

Now, I can’t say anything, really. I have my own issues with hobby ADD. But my hobbies tend to cost very little money. For instance, I play my own share of instruments but always trade in an existing one for a new one at little to no cost. Or my recent hobby is making all manner of things with my sewing machine, which is a pretty cheap hobby when you buy your fabric on clearance and your mom gave you the sewing machine years ago for a birthday gift. I tend to only read books that I can get from the library, bottles of wine for under $10, and large cuts of meat with coupons clipped from the Sunday paper. Yes, “large cuts of meat” is a legitimate hobby. My favorite hobby of all time is packing my man and my pup into the stinky old wagon and driving to the beach or a big grassy park to play fetch and take a nice long walk. This is, ironically, my most expensive hobby since an 11 year old Swedish automobile is not the cheapest thing to maintain.

You would think that I would have learned to start saying “no” to Matt’s expensive hobbies, especially as he’s on the brink of starting up the most expensive one – the hog (I think as of this writing we’ve narrowed it down to a Honda). But if you heard the stories of how much fun he had when he comes back from jamming with friends on his many instruments or rock climbing in the Gunks with his buddy Brian, you’d go straight to the nearest Harley dealership and throw down your plastic for a brand spanking shiny new 2010 cruiser. If you could see the pride in his face when he nails up that final piece of crown molding, and it fits absolutely perfectly with the one next to it, you’d head to Lowes and pick up a gorgeous new table saw for the boy. He’s just that endearing.

I make him sound like a big spender, and he’s really not. It’s just that the things he researches and dreams about for years and years cost a pretty penny. But he knows that, so he waits and saves up his gift money, and then when he goes out and gets himself that gadget I can support him whole-heartedly as  he works hard everyday and gives me one heckuva great life. Plus he’s never asked to see a receipt when I return from Target.

But this new hobby he’s picked up? Recently he’s into making “mashups” which is essentially smooshing together two songs that would work really well together, mixing them up and then posting it to all manner of “mashup” websites for feedback from other mashers. He’s currently working furiously to put a Prince song together with the Supremes. I’m not gonna lie, it sounds pretty sweet.

Best thing about this hobby? All it requires is a couple hours a week with the laptop, some free software, and a set of headphones. Not bad, if you ask me.

So, Matt! Can you make me a mashup of “Streets of Arklow” by Van Morrison and “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” by the Beatles? That’ll keep you busy enough for me to blow a whole afternoon in the clearance section of Target! Thanks, babe!

(Speaking of things that are FREE! Have you entered to win the gorgeous Sesame Letterpress coasters? No? Time is ticking away!)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 at 12:37 pm and is filed under Marriage, Money, Stuff I Love. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.