bERT... POINT WELL TAKEN. i MYSELF....SHITE CAPS LOCK!!! I myself was married for thirteen years, five months, seventeen days and fourteen hours (I rounded off the hours). I understand the need to provide a clear, concise answer to any question posed by the better half... if only to give them another alternative to eliminate. I developed standard answers but didn't have your wisdom regarding clarity. The results proved your sage advice. By example, early in the marriage, when asked "What do you want for dinner?", my response was, "If you name it, I'll cook it and I'll do the dishes." Of course, after being accused of not liking her cooking, I had to change that to, "Whatever you want, I'm sure it will be delicious and I'll help you with the cooking and cleanup." Condescending. Then, "Whatever, I'm so easy to get along with, I'd eat shit on a stick if you cooked it." Lastly, "I'm going have a sandwich and enough beer to be able to ignore your constant whine. What are you having ?" That last one was clear and concise and now I have whatever I want for supper... and I do the dishes... sometimes I let them dry over night on the counter.