All the Points

When the boys were growing up, I made dinner almost every night. That meant that every so often we would have leftovers, stored in a collection of containers in the refrigerator. Some had just a few bites in them, like leftover spaghetti and meatballs that Justin couldn't finish, or maybe a spoonful of green beans that Ryan didn't really like. Once the leftover containers had taken over the refrigerator, and I couldn't transform the leftovers into soup or something else, I would declare a smorgasbord night, put out all the containers on the counter, and everyone could decide what they wanted for dinner.

John loves leftovers, but they weren't very popular with the boys. There were "good leftovers" (macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, lasagna, or meatloaf) and the less popular "yucky leftovers" like peas, pork chops, or broccoli. One night the boys were moaning about how we didn't have anything good and they were tired of eating yucky leftovers, and I said, "Well, if you finish everything in a container, you'll get a container point!" I don't remember how old the kids were, but they were young enough that the idea of earning points won them over. They proudly tallied up their container points, and it wasn't until the next smorgasbord night that they wondered how to redeem their container points and what they were good for. I hadn't thought too far ahead, and wasn't willing to bribe my kids to eat leftovers with any real or monetary reward, so I just told them I'd figure out something.

I never did anything with the container point redemption scheme, and it eventually became a family joke. Even as adults, they still occasionally ask about container points. But a few weeks ago I discovered another type of point. 

A bunch of warning lights came on in John's truck after he had driven over some rumble strips on the way back from MD, so he took the truck to the dealer. They said he had a bad wheel speed sensor, and they would try to order one. It's one of those parts that has a rare and hard-to-get electronic chip in it, so they weren't sure if it would be available. They called me when John was on vacation and I decided it would be best to take it right into the dealer since they had actually found one. My service advisor was a woman who wondered why I was bringing in John's truck. I explained the story and told her that I was just trying to increase my good wife points. She found this fairly amusing and could barely get over the fact that I was going to sit there for three hours and wait for his truck.

When the truck was done I was pleasantly surprised to find that my good wife points had been upgraded. I'm guessing that the redemption is similar to container points, but I'm just happy to have my points officially documented (and to have earned so many)!