Weapons of mass distraction

I know I'm not alone in this, because I have heard a number of my female friends relate similar stories about their husbands/boyfriends. But, what is it about men, deadlines, and tangential work?

Let's say you are trying to get the house straightened up and ready for a big party. Do you: a) shove all the junk accumulated on your coffee table in a drawer or a room where you can close the door; b) take out the plates you need to serve the food and get them ready to put out; c) set up chairs/tables/decorations; d) scrub the bathtub with Ajax; or e) alphabetize your CD collection? Most women I know will opt for a, b, or c. Men? E. (True story: before a party, Mr. MOM was busy scrubbing the bathtub. Me: "Ummm...I don't think that anyone is planning on taking a bath during the party. At least, I hope not." Him: "I don't want anyone to look in the bathtub and see that is dirty." Me: "If someone is looking in our bathtub at a party, it's their own damn problem! Now come help me straighten up the living room, where we'll actually be spending most of our time.")

The corollary: when you are trying to get something accomplished by a certain time, something else will come up that is in his mind much more important. Case in point, last night. There were a number of things we had to do - we had to take out the garbage, pack for a weekend trip, clear a path from the front door to the cat food so our cat sitter won't sustain a serious injury when she comes to feed our cats. We have a new TV and AV system that is partially assembled, but we needed to finish putting together the stand, which has approximately 12,415 individual parts. So, from the time we got home, we worked on the stand (while DOM was contentedly watching Sagwa, Dragon Tales, and Boohbah on PBS Kids - score another notch in the bad parenting column). After dinner and bath time and bed time for DOM, we worked on the stand some more. We finally finished with the stand around 9:45 p.m. and loaded in the components. But, rather than just hooking up the TiVO and the TV, Mr. MOM decided that he HAD to hook up all the components AND program the audio receiver - a chore that took him well past 11:00 p.m. Packing for the trip? He took out his clothes for the trip this morning so I could pack them (I put together the bag of food for the car trip, packed DOM's clothes, and put together a bag of toys for the trip, as well as packing my own stuff). Taking out the garbage? Done at 11:30 p.m. Good night's sleep? Forget it.

I am woman; hear me snore.