When I don't know what to write for this blog I ask my husband who, 99% of the time, is unhelpful. Usually he response, "Me." Last night though he suggested "How the iPad has changed your life."

I don't actually own an iPad myself but some colleagues of Steve's very generously bought him one as a gift. Being the practical nagger I am I suggested that since he already has an iPhone, desktop computer and laptop, which all seem to cover what the iPad does, maybe he could exchange it for a new iPhone which he'll need eventually anyway but he gave me a look and shot that down. Fair enough, it's his new toy and he can do what he wants with it.

So far he has shown me some amazing things the iPod can show you, like:

• Google calendar
• Solitaire
• The Weather
• The title screen of the movie we were watching at the moment on TV (On the Waterfront, in case you were wondering.)

As you can tell, these are all things you can't do anywhere else, not on a computer, or on a cell phone, or even just at home without the use of any type of electronics. But it's neat and flat and fancy so, whatever. However, I get the feeling that Steve is somehow trying to insinuate the iPad into our marriage the way fundamentalist Mormon husbands try to get the other wives all enthusiastic about a new one. Steve keeps promising me that I'm going to love the iPad, that I'm going to use it all the time, to "look things up." I already do this, with a laptop. My laptop. I don't know why an iPad is suddenly going to supplant my perfectly good laptop which was the new toy itself in the house just a few years ago.

I have meanwhile pretended to do the following things with Steve's iPad in order to make him mad:

• Rub my bare foot on it


• Drop a pair of scissors on it


• Use it as toilet paper

All of which have been pretty hilarious to me, so maybe he's right, maybe the iPad has actually brought some joy into my life, which I guess in turn has just been changed forever.