Clash of the Only Children

Most of the time Stephan and I get along just famously.  Every once in awhile, though, we disagree on how to do something, and the oppositional defiance can get a little funny.

Here is an example from last Saturday night.  Of course, I have to preface this by saying that Stephan cooks all the food in our house, and I usually do the dishes willingly– except for the mini-grill, because frankly, that thing is so hard to clean, I would rather not eat if I have to clean it.  So, if he cooks on that, I will clean absolutely everything else, then make a big scene about how hard it is to clean that damned grill.

I know, I am already coming off really great in this story, right?

Last Saturday he made barbeque chicken and a lot of other really good stuff like baked beans and corn and cornbread muffins, and it was so good, and everything was clean, and…oh my God the dirty grill.  So daunting.  We started a discussion about how to clean it better, and this ended in my getting out a wire barbeque brush meant for an outside grill, which I scraped against the the mini-grill a little until I realized it was scratching the teflon.

Here's how the rest of the grill-cleaning went.  In this story, I play the role of a total ingrate who can't cook and should absolutely be cleaning everything, but who is instead giving up on cleaning, and giving unsolicited, backseat driver style advice to poor Stephan, who is already tired from cooking me dinner.

Me:  "This isn't working." (Sigh).  "I guess I have to just scrub it.  Uuuggghhhhhh."

S:  "Give me the wire brush.  It will be fine. "

Me:  "No, you're going to scratch it."

S:  "I'm the one who cooks on it, so technically it's mine."

Me:  "Maybe we could soak it.  There must be a better way."

S:  "You're not supposed to submerge the part that plugs in."

Me:  "Only one side plugs in.  You could soak the whole other half in the sink."

S:  "I'm doing it my way."

Me:  "Your way isn't working."

S:  "What do you suggest?"

Me:  "Are you serious?  I just said soak it."

S:  "I'm almost done anyway.  You can go."

Me:  "Fine, then I'm going to go eat Peanut Butter M & M's."

S:  "……Get me some."

• Category: What I'm Up To, in Case You're Wondering