About a month ago, the downstairs toilet started to run. If you jiggled the handle for a bit, it'd stop. Well, I know how to fix it. It wasn't an emergency so it was pretty low on my list of priorities, but it was annoying the wife, who couldn't walk by the bathroom without reminding me that it needed to be fixed. Of course, she always reminded me when I was in the middle of some other work, or when I had just sat down for a beer in the late afternoon.

As days turned into weeks, the reminding turned into nagging. Now, don't get me wrong, I knew the toilet needed fixing,. Hell, I wanted to fix it. It's just that, after a few weeks of needling by the Mrs, I started to dread the lecture that you always get after the job is done. You know the one;"Look, that took you 10 minutes, and how long have I been forced to nag you about that!?". Something about that little barb just gets under my skin so much that I find that I will actually avoid taking care of the things that she "reminds" me to do.

Well, I fixed the toilet this AM. I almost didn't tell her, but instead, as I walked past her in the kitchen to get another cup of coffee, I said "I fixed the toilet, hon". That didn't make it under the radar though, and the mini-lecture started.

Now, I don't know how to stop a wife from lecturing, but I this morning, I learned a way (or, I should say, 'I learned yet another way ) to make it turn into a long argument that turns into the silent wife treatment. All you have to do is hold up your finger and say "Sush, woman. A simple 'thank you' will do"

Does anyone else ever have the same dread of fixing something that the wife's been nagging about? Is it just me? Maybe on some subconscious level, I don't like women telling me what to do. Maybe I can't organize my time well enough to take care of all the things I need to do each day, and when I'm reminded of that I take it hard. Either way, it sure seems to get under the old lady's skin. And one thing I've learned about women in general is that they rarely let something bother them for very long without letting you know.

Feel my pain, brothers.