Well written and insightful post PapaBear. I can see from my attempts to help my wife, she may have been offended by it instead which is why she never took me up on the offer. To be more specific, I don't offer to lie for my wife, instead I wanted to simply say, "We have other plans." My wife has expressed that she is not ok with that, unless we actually do have other plans with another couple or together. From my perspective, us watching tv on the couch or playing scrabble together constitutes "other plans." This is not true for my wife. Is it a lie or a white lie? I don't know man, all that matters is that my wife has a hard time saying no and that bites her in the [censored] sometimes, just ask her. I'm not judging her for it, in fact it is almost quite endearing that she is that honest, I was just trying to make things a bit easier for her. She has declined my offer to help in this area so for now I'll wait to be asked.