Instructions help

I dunno. Is it me? It seems like men get a bad rap for ignoring instructions. Maybe it's because of my hobbies that I always go over the instructions for everything thoroughly. And I do mean EVERYTHING!

You name it: making coffee, assembling kits, making cds, using chemicals, programming electronics, etc. ad nauseum.

Maybe that's why it shocks me that my wife RARELY reads or follows instructions.

Case in point, the iron.

My wife collects mini garden flags. She likes to rotate the designs as often as possible. It's about all she buys on ebay these days. When we go to stores she always checks out the selection of flags as well. Yesterday she bought this cute flag of a bird. It's very spring and summer, and she couldn't wait to get it into rotation. She removes it from the packing and brings it to the ironing board. She likes to make these as smooth as possible before hanging them, despite the fact that thins one looked straight to me. It's her hobby so I won't hassle her.

Later on I hear her yelling that the iron was a piece of junk and she was going to buy a new one.

Odd, I think, this is already our third or fourth iron. The entire time I lived with my folks we only had two.

I walk into the room where my wife was ironing the flag, she was still holding the iron while complaining about the thing. "There's something wrong with this iron," she screamed, "it just ruined my cute new birdie flag!"

Looking at the iron in her hands, I suggest, "Maybe you have it up too hot?"

"I'll have you know that I've ruined several pairs of pants with this iron," she spit out.

"Lemme see..." I said as I checked the setting. "It's set at eight!!

"Yeah, a steam setting," she responded.

"But the flag is acrylic," I began to explain, "you need lower temps for man made fibers, or else it'll just melt!"

Then she just asked me to leave the room. Nothing resolved.

Well, it's her hobby. To each their own.