Hello all!

Myrrh--No worries on clarification in your post. Because I'm not sure if I mean MIL's dying or our M or both! I'm wary as heck here and not sure why!

LNL--Glad you found enjoyment of the soap opera kind. Read on if you want a real laugh!

CBH--Ditto!

Meredith--As always, your input is well timed, thoughtful and funny! I HAVE been thinking about the phone call thing, though, and this is what I came up with.

Last February, I went to visit mutual friends for a weekend. The W of the couple commented, "For someone who wants to be estranged from you, Mr. Wonderful sure calls you a lot." He phoned me often!

When I got home, they were all in the family room waiting for me--Mr. W. and D10 were playing Playstation. He was actually very cordial to me and I could tell he was processing something. Mind you, this was well before discovering DB...

I called him upstairs to the kitchen and told him I had observed something that I wasn't sure I liked. So I told him. I pointed out that when I went to Seattle and to our friends house, he phoned me incessantly--bugging me with small things that I had absolutely NO control over.

Things like, D6 escaped and is walking the neighborhood and I can't find her; should I take them to the movies or to play mini golf; where are D6's pink socks? That sort of crap.

I let him know that I didn't appreciate having him call me every half hour to address stuff like that, but if he wanted to talk, he was more than welcome. I probably didn't word it as nice as I did here, though. I remember asking him how he'd feel if I called him every 20-30 minutes when he was having the rare chance to get away? He probably muttered and walked away...

When I was visiting you in Detroit, he was probably hyper sensitive to that "chat" last year.

But why here and at home? Once I broke the ice and called him on Saturday about D10's birthday party, he called from then on out. No more calls from D10 that should have been from him!

Oh, yes, the party...

She sent out the invitations without consulting either one of us--and wants a bowling party.

I discovered that all the lanes have leagues until 9 pm at night, and dragging 10 10-year old girls out at 9 doesn't sound like a really good idea. So I called them to ask for an alternate of choice--Fat City or something else.

Well, she was really whiny and obnoxious. I could tell that Mr. Wonderful was a little irritated with her. I asked him to ask her what she wanted, and she pulled some PA crap of her own--saying "I don't care, it's only my birthday party. Everyone is going to be mad at me anyway, so you choose."

He sighed but I got mad. I said, "K, I've got an idea... you willing to go along with it for a second?" He said, "Sure."

I told him to tell her if she didn't help us, I'd call for some clowns (she hates clowns). He did, and Ms. Stubborn replied, "Who cares." I said, "Tell her I'm going to hire those midget clowns that came to Dave's party last year."

He did and she started to cry... she told him to tell me she'd at least try to work with him on doing SOMETHING entertaining!

So I'm still at a loss on why he was choosing not to speak to me until I broke the ice. It doesn't make sense to me.

Whoever commented that he was shielding me from his mother's words is right on the money. He has done this throughout our M. I'm very grateful for this, but the fact is that her words really hurt him. This is what I don't understand about her.

Okay, my last funny story. Mr. W. is still aghast at this.

D6 had fettucine alfredo all over her face and hands last night, so when she was finished, I took her to the ladies room. We got her washed up and then I decided to go to the bathroom while we were in there. I asked her to go too (she declined), and told her she was coming in the stall with me.

While I was walking into the stall, a female wait attendant walked in. I had finished and was standing up to pull up my jeans when D6 opened the stall door--which was in front of the entrance. A man walked into the ladies room, having a full shot of what I had to offer (nude below the waist) and apologized. I was appalled and looked at the other gal who was standing at the sink and laughing. She commented, "Well, if that wasn't a worse case bathroom scenario, I don't know what is!"

I returned to the table with a bit of my pride missing and commented to Mr. Wonderful, "I had an incident in the bathroom." He looked at me, puzzled, and said, "Huh?"

I told him that another patron "pulled a Bill". He turned red and started to laugh. I told the story and D10 started to cry... she was functioning on 2 hours of sleep and over excitement. She said, "Why would a man come in the ladies room?"

Before I go on, I will tell you that Mr. Wonderful did this once before we had kids. And it was a huge joke, because he did it a year after my grandfather did. We called it "Pulling a Bill" after my grandfather... who also had a really lame excuse (even though he was 80 years old at the time).

Mr. Wonderful told D10 his exact words: "Because, silly, he didn't see the W-O before the M-E-N!"

Another side note here: I received an e-mail from the hunky sportcaster this morning. He said he would LOVE to do the tournament, but he's working and he has to work because he's getting married the following Saturday! But he said he now owes me... I promise to enlighten him with DB--in fact, maybe I'll send him a copy as a wedding present! He sounds like a great guy...

This just gives me further resolve to get Mr. W. to come around. But who knows what that will take and how long it will take?

"There are only 2 ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."

Albert Einstein