"Do I look fat to you?"

So I have been married less than 6 months and it happened. My beautiful wife came up to me as we were getting ready to go out and said "Do I look fat to you?" And, no, she is not pregnant.

I had heard the stories and there must 100 different sitcom variations on this, but I still was flabbergasted that MY wife would ask this question.

And of course being the guy that I am, I could not think of any of the many diplomatic responses I had been given. They range from "No, honey, you look fabulous" to "How would you like me to answer that question?" to "No more so than a beached whale" -- hoping the latter will produce a smile. I just gave my dumb look.

Which brings to me a great article that my sister-in-law sent to me about animal training. It is called L.R.S (Least Re-inforcing Syndrome). Basically, what it means is that when someone, I mean when an animal, does something which you don't want them to do, don't react. Most likely the person or animal will not do this again as it gets no reaction.

Given that perhaps my dumb look was not so dumb after all.