My current life span on microwaves is about 6 months. I have gone through 3 in a short amount of time. The one I have now works - occasionally. It shuts off when I try to melt butter. It must be covered with a lid, and even at that it shuts off twice before it melts. Forget microwave popcorn. It just won't do it anymore. Sometimes I just have to unplug it for a while. It won't shut off otherwise. Nice huh? The last two (includes the one I am using now) have been GE. I will never buy another GE appliance EVER! Not sure what I am going to get to replace this one, but I think I will look at Sears. Don't buy anything from Wal-Mart. Some places will back up their appliances for a year - Menards does around here. At least you have some recouse then. Your new one will not last 29 years! That is for sure :) I hope it lasts 29 days! LOL

My honest opinion is that your wife is not in love with you anymore (if she ever was) and is only staying with you "because of the children". Let's look at the facts; she shows no interest in you whatsoever (physically, sexually) and doesn't even want to sleep with you or spend any time with you. She told you straight out that you were third in the list of her priorities. She is making excuses as to why she won't have sex with you because she doesn't want to admit to the real reason. I think she wants you to stay around as long as the kids are still at home. The biggest indicator of all is that she will not attend marital counseling with you!! She obviously knows you aren't happy and are trying to work on the marriage, yet she is only willing to placate you by going to individual counseling. Not that she doesn't need that too, but the problems are with the marriage, yet she straight up is refusing to do maybe the only thing that would save the marriage. No matter what the reason is for the problem, the fact that she is unwilling to try and fix it clearly demonstrates how important the relationship is to her. I think you are too young to be spending your life in a "relationship" with someone who basically wants nothing to do with you. Nobody should have to endure a marriage where they are having sex a couple of times a year (unless both partners are fine with that arrangement) or when one partner obviously has no interest in the other. I think that unless she agrees to actually go to Marriage Counseling, with YOU, and talk about what is going on here, then don't bother. Why should you try if she isn't going to. Go find someone who is madly in love with you and wants to cuddle with you, have sex with you, spend time with you, and will communicate openly about problems when they come in your relationship.

I too have a Manx who I noticed starting 'missing' the box a few years ago, and kind of leaving a little trail :( . And like you I thought at first that she was not making it to the box so I considered putting even more boxes around so she wouldn't have to go very far to find one. Until I noticed her racing away from the box, and you guessed it... leaving a trail. Turns out, she was constipated and it hurt her to poo. She ran from the pain. Which of course meant she deposited her poo wherever she happened to be running. So I had to find ways to get more water into her. I gave in and allowed her to drink from a constantly dripping bathtub faucet, her favorite way to drink. And I have to feed her wet food mostly. It worked. Unfortunately she developed an aversion to the box to poo that she hasn't overcome yet. She uses it fine for #1, but I have to keep an eye on her and actually take her to the box and keep her there until she goes #2, which doesn't take long. And then when she is done she races from the room as though the box is going to swallow her. It's weird, but it works. So, as odd as this question sounds, can you tell which direction the poo is facing? LOL, without getting into the gory details, sometimes if you look you can tell. Maybe your kitty needs even more liquids than he is getting now.

I appreciate all the comments and concerns, and I wanted to reply to a few comments that were made here. First of all, to any poster that made the comment that I shouldn't have married a man if I didn't want his children. This is NOT the case. I explained that I did everything in my power to make his daughters feel comfortable in my home, and my SD just does not appreciate that from me. I don't know about all of you, but living under the same roof with someone who refuses to talk to you isn't a comfortable situation for me. And yes, maybe a part of me was selfish in wanting to at least have one month of getting used to being married before picking up the full time mother status, but I don't feel like I am in the wrong for that at all. I personally don't feel like our situation will be the best for her. DH works 12 hour days, and sometimes 6 days a work. I work fulltime, plus go to school. We are barely home as it is. I have already made it clear that his decision to let her move in will not interrupt my classwork, and that I am not a soccer mom. She is very active in sports, and I know that part of her motivation for moving in was that her BM only let her participate in one sport at a time. (He would let her do as many as possible.) I have recently started to feel sort of bad for SD. Ever since her decision to move in with us, her BM has basically shut her out. She doesn't attend her games, and has made a point to devote more time to her own stepchildren (She married a man with 4). However, I have a hard time believing SD when she talks about how badly she's being treated at home, because used to say similar things about me. Long story short, I'm just going to have to suck this up. I'm planning on making an appt with a therapist to make sure that I handle everything the right way, and all my stress doesn't drive me insane. Again, thank you for all of the advice. I may not be too thrilled about her being here full-time, but she is just a child. I have the power to influence her, and maybe I can correct her bad attitude and things will get better. But she will only get worse if everyone acts like they hate her because of this. Thanks again.