The cement man

(Retro blog from weeks 8 and 9)
  I briefly mentioned mood swings in my last post. Let me delve into that subject a little bit. Before I get there, I just want to be absolutely clear. My wife is not a ball of anger waiting to pounce on me. For the most part she has been very pleasant and loving, even through her pain and nausea. However, she is prone to lash out every now and then. And unfortunately my uncanny knack for doing things without thinking them through doesn't help. Let me illustrate this for you.
  Tanisha is in bed and she begins to feel heartburn. 'Baby I need some Malox, can you go to the store and get some?' Well at this point in time I just do NOT want to leave my house. Luckily for me, we have a bit of Malox left that I purchased some time ago. What made this not so lucky is that about 10-20 minutes before my wife's request I was cleaning out the refrigerator. While looking through and trying to decide what things to keep and what to throw away, I came across a bottle of Malox that was almost empty. 'This is almost old and there's only a little left. Let me get her some more later and get rid of this one.' What I did not consider was that later would be in 10 minutes. What I also didn't consider is that my wife would inexplicably get out of bed some time within those 10 minutes, go into the kitchen, throw something away, and notice the Malox sitting at the top of the garbage can on top of a pile of paper towels. For my defense (of which I have little) I had just put those paper towels in also and they were only used to wipe up water, and the Malox was still cold. Well I walk into my bedroom with a nice big tablespoon of garbage-Malox ready to ease the burn in Tanisha's chest. The next thing I know I'm literally running out of the house yelling behind me, 'Ok baby!' In order to not come back to a seething wife, there are a few essential things to remember:
1. Don't argue back.
2. Admitting the wrong is of the utmost importance.
3. Don't dwell on the subject. Let her yell, then keep it moving.
4. One word for you: smooth. Smooth it over any way you can. I've become an expert at this and it's made my life better. And safer.