Argument Avoided

My husband asked me this morning if I wanted to go to my stepkids' state with him on Saturday for his daughter's band concert.  I told him we couldn't afford to kennel our five dogs for the weekend right now for that trip when we'll be doing it again in June for her graduation so he'd have to go by himself.  He said, "No, I mean just for the day."  Huh?  Drive nine hours with our four kids for kids who ignored his existence on Christmas, his birthday, Father's Day and who ignored their siblings on their birthdays and Christmas and who wouldn't consider spending time here with us because everything else was more important but put their hands out asking for huge and expensive gifts (phew, deep breath)?  No, thank you.

I was very even-tempered and calm about my response.  There weren't any loud guffaws of astonishment from me.  There wasn't any snickering or snorts.  Wow.  I did good!