Process of Elimination

I was trying to be nice last night. I was out of town for most of last week and the husband sometimes gets an attitude. Secretly, he likes it when I'm gone but he has to pretend to be irritated. It's part of our marriage dance.

The first thing I did was to cook dinner. And, I tried a new recipe that sounded like something he would like -- kind of a jambalaya sauce over pasta. If I do say so myself, it was yummy. (Rachel Ray says it can be made in 30 minutes. She's a big liar.)

My second nice thing was to listen to golf stories. I did not make the gagging noise. I did not roll my eyes. I slipped up once and said, "Did you forget this is a HOBBY? Unless you've joined the Senior Tour and forgot to tell me about it, get over yourself." He let that pass.

My third nice thing was to let him play his iPod and have control of the remote. (You cannot imagine how difficult this is for me.) At one point he extended his hand -- the universal symbol for "May I have this dance?"

As we danced, I commented, "You don't even like me." He said, "I know. But, you're the only one here."