Michele is out of town this week, so when I get home, I listen to the various phone messages people have left during the day.

When I get a message from one of my friends (read: another man), it usually is something like, "Dude, call me."

Hearing the messages that are meant for Michele is an eye-opening experience. The messages are usually one to two minutes long and involved detailed explanations of some sort, that will inevitably be said again when Michele calls back.

I simply am amazed at the length and detailed nature of these messages that explain not only what they are calling about, but their motivation for calling and usually some extraneous topic tossed in for good measure.

Today I listened to call asking if Zoe wanted a playdate that went on a 90 second detour on why an extra helmet was needed during the overall 3 mintue call.

With women's gift for verbosity, I'm surprised that all of our politicians aren't women.