Friday night the spousal unit strolled into the kitchen sniffing appreciatively. "What's that?" he asked.

"Meatloaf."

After last week's meatloaf mayhem, a lesser man would have packed his bags and left me then and there. I'll say this for him, the man has guts.

I pulled Stephanie's Grandma's Meatloaf out of the oven shortly afterward. We both studied it solemnly. After all, we've both seen what can happen When Meatloaf Goes To The Dark Side.

The colour was perfect. "Well, it doesn't LOOK like it will poison us," he said, said he. Another woman would have been insulted. Me, I was practically beaming.

I cut the meatloaf. It sliced as you would expect a loaf to slice. There was none of last week's oozing. The spousal unit visibly relaxed. He tentatively lifted a forkful and � and � Houston, we have meatloaf! Next time I would add two cloves of garlic instead of one (because we are big garlic fans in this household) but the meatloaf is definitely a hit.

The daughter and her sweetie scarfed down enormous helpings when they came in from Montreal last night. The recipe Has Been Given To The Offspring. The Italian meatloaf will be tried next Friday.

Life is good.

You would think that achieving meatloaf would be happiness enough, but oh, no, I got bonus happiness.

Another workout CD came in time for Friday's workout, a CD from Laura.

Here's where it gets a bit confusing. Four of my three loyal readers who offered to make me a workout CD are named Laura. Clearly the name Laura comes from the Greek for "kind-hearted woman who will mix music so a stranger can overcome the pain and tedium of a workout."

(YES! That was a "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" joke. You might think it's easy to keep six months behind all the pop culture trends, but believe me, It Takes Dedication and Commitment.)

One Laura signed a surname, but all the other Lauras I know only by their given names.

This is a truly unusual CD with music of a Middle-Eastern flavour and one song that even sounds like it came from a Bollywood soundtrack. Normally that alone should be enough to filter things down, but two of the Lauras asked if I had anything against foreign language music.

Aye Carumba.

So Laura who started a CD with a song from an Omar and ended it with a song from Tori Amos, your Santa Pack of Kinder goodness is on its way to you. If you have a web journal or blog, let me know, 'kay?

Now normally, my cats sleep through whatever music I might play, but this CD gets on my cat Zoe's last nerve.

After gym I put it on here to help power me through some housework. About half way into it, Zoe cut into her badly needed 22 1/2 hours of daily sleep to stalk downstairs grumpily, give me a look that clearly conveyed eye-rolling and to yell at me until I went upstairs and turned off the upstairs speakers. Then she went back upstairs to my bed and went back to sleep.

Cats are extremely bossy and judgmental creatures. Don't let anyone tell you differently.

Yep, interesting music, but Is It Sweatable? Surprisingly so. It has amazingly hypnotic drumming, and it really drew me along. For all I know, the lyrics are singing the praises of plump, juicy raisins, but it didn't matter.

Definitely another recipient of the justly coveted Ten Beads of Sweat Award.

Yesterday, the solstice, was our 28th wedding anniversary. Romance? Um, we spent the day scrubbing down the house interior. This fall the daughter was diagnosed with an allergy to dust mites and we want her stay here over Christmas to be as comfortable as possible.

Oh yeah, there's nothing like a threesome involving me, the spousal unit and Mr. Clean, eh?

Now, here's the stupid thing. For me, him helping meant more than flowers or a candlelit dinner. We shared that afterwards last night at the home of dear friends. It was wonderful, and I was grateful, but in another way.

It meant far more to me that he was willing to help me with something I really loathe. I am cranky, snarky, and all around poopy-headed if I have to do more than an hour's worth of housework at a shot, so he knew that sticking around wasn't going to be fun.

But he did. Taking on six hours of housework was the best anniversary present he could have given me.

Me, I'm thinking it was the meatloaf talking.

Never underestimate the power of a good meatloaf.

--Marn

P.S.--If you're doing any of your Christmas shopping at Amazon this year, why not do it through Blue Sphere? Five per cent of what you spend will be donated by Amazon to Blue Sphere, and will be given to the Foster Parents Plan of Canada.

Yep, you get to make a large corporation cough up five per cent of its profits AND at no cost to yourself you get to help some poor kids out. What's not to love about that, eh?