Maria del Rosario Cayetana Alfonsa Victoria Eugenia Francisca Fitz-James Stuart y de Silva, an 85-year-old Spanish dutchess is giving away her fortune (she's worth somewhere between $850 million and $5 billion) so she can marry Alfonso Diez, a civil servant (gasp!) who is 24 years younger than her.
Basically she's giving away her money to her six children to help quell their fears that Diez is not marrying their mother for love.
"Alfonso doesn't want anything. All he wants is me," the dutchess said. If you've seen the news story on the web earlier this week, you may have caught a glimpse of this woman - the pouffy-haired one in the colorful dress next to this uncomfortable-looking fellow. More power to Alfonso I?guess. Just hope the dutchess doesn't model herself after Liz Taylor and her last husband, the construction worker.
The dutchess has been married twice before. Her first husband and father of her children, died in 1972. Her second one died in 2001. Her children are still a little leery of their mother's impending nuptials; they even "vetoed" her getting married to the guy three years ago. I think they'll be fine as each of them got a castle from their mother. Yeah, that's right, an entire castle.
So this brings me to the next Yahoo news story on the topic of love that piqued my interest this week (gotta love those links) - an article titled "Don't Take A?Woman There!" Mainly it's about places guys shouldn't bring their dates to. So here's the lowdown on places you should avoid when trying to impress a date:
1. Sports-themed places.
2. Theme parks
3. Chain restaurants
4. Gross-out comedies
5. Paintball
6. Meeting your mother
By the way, this article was written by a woman.
So let's start with sports-themed places. Unless the woman is really into baseball, football or hockey, she may not really enjoy the place, especially when trying to talk over the "big game" and the crush of fans hollering at the big screen TV.
Onto theme parks. Now I don't know about you, but I actually enjoy going to a theme park; I?went to a small one a couple of weeks ago. There's nothing like the thrill of a roller coaster or the big splash of "The Wave" at Valley Fair. It's been quite a few years since I've been there, probably the mid-1990s, but being someone who loves waterparks and fun rides, I would have to disagree with the article on this venue.
Which brings us to chain restaurants and gross-out comedies. The author of the article said to impress your date by taking her to a restaurant that is "somewhere off the beaten path,"?basically somewhere unexpected. Guess grabbing a burger at Culver's or Hardee's lacks originality on my part, but it's the spending time with the person that's important, not necessarily if I want fries with my meal.
I'll admit that I?haven't watched too many of the "gross-out" comedies. I'm yet to see "Old School,"?"Tommy Boy," "Dumb and Dumber" and well, most Will Ferrell or Adam Sandler movies. But I will say that I laughed out loud several times when I?went to see "The Hangover" with Ross. He wasn't as amused. Go figure. And I?haven't done the paintball thing, so I?can't really comment much on the activity.
I don't mind being around mothers. It's nice to be away from work and enjoying some good food and company. And there's an added bonus - Ross' family likes to play Trivia Pursuit! That's definitely something I don't do enough with my own family, so it's a win-win for me.