Cobra,

She complains less about my being a coward than before. There is a remnant of excessive conflict avoidance in my character, but it is usually dormant. It does occasionally come to the surface, though. A classic example is when we are travelling. I try to act in such a way as to avoid adding stress to the people who work in the travel industry; W tends to have the attitude that the squeaky wheel gets the oil, so she will enter into a somewhat confrontational discussion with a gate agent, for instance, just as a flight is about to take off. Very frequently she is in the wrong or does not have a clear understanding of the issue at hand. (She basically became an Obatarian at age 35.) The worst blowups occur when she insists that I argue her point on her behalf, even when I do not agree with her opinion, do not understand her opinion, or feel that the time is inappropriate.

I am working on "Calm Assertiveness" but it is a lifelong struggle.

HD, I got no b-day sex but I got a good dinner and saw a nice performance with W. We talked a lot. Our anniversary's coming up (9/11) so I'll try again for a couple's night out.

Paul