Veggie pizza, Doofus scowled at the box, sitting on Barb's counter top. She had brought it with her from work,

and it didn't look like she was going to make anything for supper; she had said something about having had a big lunch - something about someone getting a promotion.  At present, she was in the kitchen, pouring herself a cup of tea, while gabbing on the phone.  

"Yep...I was surprised, but not..."  She turned her head toward the couch, then spoke into her phone.  "I'll tell you later."   Their conversation continued, to another, but not too unrelated a topic.  "Been seriously starting to think about it, doesn't make sense to continue...and having nothing to show..."  

A snowplow went scraping by.   A voice from the corridor exclaimed to someone else, either coming or going, how the Carolinas are looking better and better.   Doofus was growing a bit irritated with the noisy neighbors - which they were not - and with the muted conversation going on in the kitchen - of course, unaccompanied by a clatter of a skillet or saucepan.   

With clicker in hand, he surfed through five or six channels, all but two were playing commercials.  The one station had a brady bunch rerun, and the other was some stupid geology channel.  Why Barb put up with such a lame program plan; never mind, about the only thing Barb watched was either the geology or the weather channel - strings of five and six commercials, running every ten minutes, didn't seem to bother her; she just kept on knitting...whatever.  A corner peeked out of the canvas tote, parked alongside her recliner.  Either a scarf or a panel for a cousin's baby; the cousin had stopped in the other day - whadda BLIMP, doofus smirked.

Barb then interjected into her phone something about jeanine not being able to join them tomorrow afternoon.  Weren't they a bit old, and FAT for sledding? He opined to himself - and kept those scoffings to himself; after all, february isn't the season to be hitting the sofa-surf.  

She then continued with the previous thread, "like I'm getting any younger?" she laughed, stirring her tea.  "They're all mcmansions...like, what would I do with..." "Booshh!"  Whatever it was, the brushy thud came from the upstairs neighbors.  "...half mil...oh yeah, good deal, if you have children...nope!"  She then said something about a shower - one with soap and water - but before she could hear what her friend was saying - something about towels...

"Hey, you got something to eat around here?  I'm hungry!"

"There's some tuna casserole in the frig..."  but before she could mention there was also some chicken pot pie (she had made the other day) he cut in, "I don't do casseroles."

"Well..." she responded, and headed to the bedroom, shutting the door.  A few moments later came the whoosh of the shower.  Doofus arose, and nuked - on max - the soup container - making a spatter, and a dent to the container.  He reached in the cupboard for the crackers, tore open a sleeve, and crunched about half of it into the plastic dish - and more than some onto the counter.  He muttered a curse; she needed to buy a new nuke, one that didn't take %&:# forever to heat stuff up.  

Barb's towled head and thickly robed back was in the kitchen, cleaning up the mess.  She then, quickly, grabbed the empty bowl, and a snack cake wrapper, or two - from one of the vending machines in the common room.  He didn't have to see the look on her face; he knew, he wasn't getting any tonight.  

With a hardcover tucked under her ample arm, she headed into the bedroom.  Doofus, again, reached for the clicker.