IT'S FUN TO BE RIGHT ... ESPECIALLY IF I'VE BEEN UNJUSTLY ACCUSED

It's interesting how long it takes a person to realize certain situations. A friend of the genius once told us that when he was a teenager, he and his father used the same toothbrush for over a year before one of them discovered it. When he was relating it to us, he said, "I did wonder why my toothbrush was always WET when I used it, but it never occurred to me that I was sharing it with someone else!" A similar situation has happened in our kitchen, although not as gross as the toothbrush incident.

I keep a bottle of hand soap and another of lotion in a little basket right next to the sink in the kitchen. Very gradually, over a period of perhaps two years, I noticed that I always seemed to be moving it closer to the sink. Somehow, the basket was always pushed a distance of six inches to a foot away from where I thought I had left it. Finally, I became fully aware of the situation and asked the genius about it.

He said indeed he had been moving it because it was always wet under the basket and he had to keep mopping up the water. So I agreed to try to keep it dry underneath it if he would refrain from moving it. It was a nuisance to have to reach a foot away from the water to get the soap.

I also began to pay attention to how I washed my hands, thinking that I was getting my hands wet before I put them under the soap and thus dripping water across the counter. But no, my routine was to turn the water on with my left hand and reach with my dry right hand for the soap. I also began noticing how I rinsed things off (vegetables, dishes, etc.) and checking to see if these actions splashed water and left the counter damp. When I clean the kitchen I always wash, then dry with a paper towel all of the counter tops.

The other night the genius went into the kitchen, washed his hands, then called me in there to show me how wet it was. I told him I hadn't been in there since I had cleaned it up from dinner and had made sure that all the surfaces were dry!! So we both decided that he was the culprit. He was sticking his hands under the water, then dripping them to the soap.

I was expecting him to pull out the little credit card I gave him this summer that stated " I am right" because I know he is saving it for a time when there's no doubt that he's wrong, but he didn't. He's saving it for a time when I least expect it, I'm sure.