maybe a pack in there somewhere

Touché

See what I mean?

I forgot something. The bed linins need to be washed at least twice a year.

Lee

Vecuuming was cured by 'accidentally' vacuuming up something of her's that
she left laying around... <evil-grin>

Cutting through the electrical cord with the hedge trimmers is a good way
to get banished from yard work...

My wife can't stand it if the garbage does not go out the night before. I
don't care when it goes out as long as it goes out. If I mss the garbage
man, well that's why I bought a trash compactor. She usually takes the
garbage out.

She won't even let me go with her to go shopping. I think it has something
to do with coming home with what I like instead of what she likes, or coming
home with twice as much as we have storage for. Have I mentioned I'm an
impulse buyer? She also absolutely hates the way I shop. I'm not quite sure
what the problem is. She says I wander all over the store, taking forever. I
do, but you have to look around to find out what you want. Sometimes I don't
think of it until I'm past the row where it is. Have I mentioned that I'm an
impulse buyer? I know it sounds inconsistent, but I don't ever go shopping
without a list of what I'm going to get. Us impulse buyers are easily
distracted from our original purpose. That might be another reason I don't
get to go shopping often.

We're both reasonably good cooks. Generally, I am the more creative cook.
That means it often takes me longer to put dinner together than it does if
she does it. She's not all that patient. Some things I cook, some things she
cooks. It's a job for her, a hobby for me.

We both vacuum too. I get the big jobs, she cleans up after me. When we took
the Christmas tree out, for example, I got the job of getting the bulk of
the dead needles up off the floor. My shop vac does a pretty good job of it,
but doesn't get everything on the first pass. She comes along with her
upright and gets what I leave behind. Neither of us vacuums if we can't see
anything on the floor. Dust that has settled in, is not visible. The maid
takes care of that. More on that later.

Yard work is supposed to be my job. Way back when we were just living
together, I had finished mowing the yard and asked her to help me rake and
pick up the grass. My position is, and I'm right, that a job shared with
somebody you love goes faster and can actually be fun. She didn't agree. She
stated, in no uncertain terms, that outside the house was my responsibility,
inside was hers. I hired a lawn service the next day and sold the lawn
mower, edger and most other yard tools shortly thereafter. I haven't mowed a
lawn in 15 years.

Here's the part about the maid. About 10 years after I had hired a lawn
service, my wife came and asked me if it was OK for her to hire a maid to
come in every other week to take care of stuff both of us hate. My response
was "Of course, what took you so long to ask?" When I hired the law service,
I figured she'd hire help for inside the house almost immediately. It never
occurred to me to suggest it, though. After all, inside the house is hers.

In reality, inside the house, we both tend to do what we care about most.
She absolutely will not get in a bed that has not been made. I could care
less. She normally gets up first, so I have a choice. I can get up where she
does or I can make up the bed when I do get up. Most often, I make the bed.
Apparently, my wife does not care about clean counter tops or sinks. I, on
the other hand, can't stand them to be dirty. I don't think my wife has
cleaned the sink in 10 years. I do it at least once a day, sometimes more
often.

What we both don't care about, cleaning bathrooms and dusting (within reason
in both cases), the maid handles.

It's a good working relationship.

Oh yes, one more thing. She figured out how to deal with the laundry thing.
She drives to work. I usually work at home. She got in the habit of spending
a whole day on the weekend doing laundry. We're supposed to do things
together on weekends. Since I could not get her to do a load of laundry each
night, I had the choice of learning to do it her way or putting up with
spending a day sitting on my hands while she did it on the weekend. I
learned to do it her way . . .at least while she's watching. I do a load of
whatever has accumulated enough on most week days even though I've been
banned from doing so.

My way of doing laundry:
Separate things by those that wrinkle if left in the washer or dryer and
those that don't. Colors are not important. Stuff as much in the large
capacity washing machine and dryer as will fit. What's a fabric softener?
Her way of doing laundry:
Separate things by color. Take everything out of the washer as soon as it's
done. Take stuff out of the dryer when it's done. Jeans and dress shirts of
similar colors go in the same load. All loads are small, very small. Towels
only go with other towels, sheets and pillow cases go together, not with
anything else. Don't even think of failing to put a fabric softener sheet in
the dryer. More than one is good.

My way of keeping peace in the household? I do several things without fail:
1. Always, she gets a kiss when I leave the house or she does, even if it's
to run to the local store.
2. She gets told how much I love her several times a day, every day, whether
I'm home or not. When I'm on the road, I call at least once every day,
sometimes twice. We email each other several times a day too. Last year, we
took separate vacations. I went shooting in Wyoming with Rick Simms, she
went on a cruise with Rick's wife. They were out of phone range for most of
a week. I hated it. We won't do that any more, even if it means I have to
get on a damned cruise ship every few years.
3. I say "Yes Dear" a lot.
4. While I maintain veto power over almost everything, I very, very rarely
exercise it.
5. I make good money and pay all the large bills. She doesn't even see them.
She takes care of the smaller stuff. It's a partnership based on sharing,
not on who does what or how much.
6. Did I mention I'm an impulse buyer? My impulses are just as likely to
result in something for her as something for me, maybe more so.

Lee