Some people say that marriage is more like a marathon than a sprint. If that’s the case, I won the bread portion of our marathon a few weeks ago.

For a long time, I have wanted us to get a breadmaker. Since I would have very little to do with the actual machine, the decision didn’t rest with me. I knew I would enjoy the end product, but that didn’t carry enough weight.

Maria insisted we didn’t need some contraption to make bread. She could make bread just fine on her own. And she could.

It’s just that whenever I walked through a store that sold breadmakers, I felt like Eddie Murphy in his famous comedy sketch about hamburgers. He told his mother he wanted McDonald’s. She made him a homemade burger on Wonder Bread instead and all the kids teased him.

The bread Maria made wasn’t as bad as Mrs. Murphy’s hamburger, but she didn’t bake it as often as I might have liked her to because it took a fair amount of time and effort.

Growing up, we had bread on the table every night. Sure, it was plain white bread – and eventually wheat bread – but it was just something I always remembered.

I don’t want bread with every meal anymore, but it goes so well with the amazing soups, stews and especially Maria’s chili, I wanted warm homemade bread whenever I could get it.

For a few years, I figured I had a better chance at installing a full-scale arcade in the basement than I did at seeing a breadmaker in the kitchen. We didn’t have any real conflict over it. I just didn’t see it happened. Then the one thing that could move the needle in my direction happened.

Maria’s mother bought a breadmaker.

That’s pretty much the highest endorsement a kitchen item can get. When we had dinner over their one weekend, we had some pretty amazing bread. I could almost hear Maria’s will crumbling with every bite she took.

A few weeks later, the second chink in the armor appeared. Maria’s sister made great bread with her new breadmaker when we visited her house for a weekend meal. Sure enough, Maria headed out shopping one Sunday after that and came home with a brand-spanking new breadmaker.

I couldn’t have planned this any better if I had tried. I just wish I had thought of getting her Mom and sister involved earlier. Maria always needs to see someone else try something before she can embrace change. I should know that by now.

Naturally, Maria made amazing bread when she finally got the machine in the house. She threw herself into all kinds of recipe books to find the best recipes. That’s part of the reason I wanted us to get a breadmaker – I knew she would have so much fun when she got it.

I’m having fun too. The cheese-onion bread I had with my soup the other day made it worth all my hard work.