My wife complains that I don't listen to her anymore, which is true. But it's not my fault. I used to listen to her; every word. What has happened in the intervening 12 1/2 years is that I have slowly been trained by the fact that about 80% of what she says is irrelevant filler. For example, if I ask her, what's the agenda for this weekend. She could tell me that kid 1 and kid 2 have a playdate on Saturday from 10-2, kid 2 has a birthday party from 3-4:30 and on Sunday kid 3 has birthday party from 2-3:30 and that is all. Instead, I hear about her new hairdresser (hair appointment on Friday, not the weekend and during a time that doesn't affect me), something about her car, something about her mom, something about our health insurance and a bunch of other shit I just completely tuned out. It took her at least 10 minutes tell get it all out. When she was finished I asked her, "So, just to confirm, kid 1 and kid 2 have a playdate on Saturday from 10-2, kid 2 has a birthday party from 3-4:30 and on Sunday kid 3 has birthday party from 2-3:30 and that's it, right?" Her: "Yes, that's right." Tone.