Wednesdays are our busiest day of the week. I work until 8:00, though I can come home at 5:00 if there aren't any active hospital calls. Willem comes home between 3:00-5:00 to collect the various children from their various schools, and then waits for me to break the plane of the door, at which point he rushes off to teach his night class. We have two sitters who are "on call" along with me, so that if I get a hospital call they come right over to watch the kids, and I pay them for holding the evening open whether they come babysit or not.

This week was particularly chaotic. After I was done at the hospital, I realized that I wasn't sure whether Willem had already paid the sitters, and I didn't have cash. I very rarely call during his class times, but this was a need-to-know situation. And, since there is an unstated rule that says that if Willem were to actually answer his cell phone when it rang, the Earth would spin off its axis, I left a voice mail message.

A few minutes later, my phone rang. Our conversation went thusly:
W: Hi. I only have time for four words. Well... actually, five words.
K: Okay.
W: I did not pay her.
K: Okay.
W: Bye.

And I had no choice but to be highly amused, because if he hadn't corrected himself, I never would have noticed that it was more than four words. But by correcting himself, he nearly doubled the number of seconds we were on the phone.