To be clear, my husband is far from perfect. He can be self-righteous, condescending, and a complete a-hole when he's in the wrong mood. There are many a times when I am shocked - shocked! - that I married such a jerk. For the most part, though, he's a funny, easy-going, smart, supportive, and adoring person that I want to spend my life with. On the other hand, I am a person ridden with bad habits.

My husband tends to allow adequate time to go to bed before he wants to be asleep. He budgets a full eight hours of peaceful slumber for himself. I find that although I am exhausted, I can't go to sleep because I did stupid things like read a distressing news report right before I changed into my pajamas. I then toss and turn for a while before giving up and playing word search games on Facebook into the wee hours of the morning, swearing that I will never do this again. Until next week.

When it comes to eating, I am plagued by cravings for sweets and baked goods. Back in January, I decided to try the South Beach Diet in an effort to control my increased level of insulin resistance. At first, my husband wanted no part in the diet. I convinced him to try it with me, and once we were in the thick of it, he managed it better than I did. We successfully completed the two week Phase I period (no carbs except some veggies), except that I couldn't really avoid the caffeine (morning tea - is that so bad?) and used too much sugar substitute, which I subsequently learned is treated by the pancreas the same way as real sugar is. My husband lost 10 pounds. I ate two pieces of cake at an Oscars party (hey, it had a picture of "The Wrestler" painted on it in frosting, how could I resist?) and half of an oatmeal cookie. He ate the mini "Slum(hot)dogs." By the end of the third week, he lost another 5 pounds. I had a dream in which I hosted a fundraiser to promote birth control and catered the event entirely with ice cream sandwiches and bon bons.

Our exercise habits are pretty equal. We both aim to hit the gym about five times a week. Except that he tends to give 100% effort almost every workout while I spend half of my workouts lackadaiscally cycling while reading Entertainment Weekly...

As for other bad habits or vices, I never drink (can't stand the taste of alcohol), but my husband is rarely drunk, so that works out well. He says he doesn't miss the empty calories. Neither of us are smokers. We are both goody-goodies who have never even tried illegal substances. Not even pot.

The truth is, we all have bad habits. Mine just happen to be more obvious than my husband's. Fortunately, my husband is fairly tolerant of my neurotic eat-a-thons (plate of whipped cream on Monday night when I was frustrated that an event that I had looked forward to for weeks had been canceled due to a snow storm that never came), my spazzing out over news, and my caffeine jitters, which really, aren't that bad. (I've never liked coffee.) Sure, I talk during movies (but only at home, never in theaters), but he seems resigned to my babbling. When I don't put away clean dishes, he laughs when I explain it is because they don't like how dark it is in the cabinets. And when he "forgets" to clean our pet rabbit's litter, I make sure that I remind him to do so or take care of it myself. That's just the way it goes.

Are your bad habits compatible with those of your partner? Do you complement each other or exacerbate problems? How do you deal with your partner's bad habits and vice versa?

Suzanne also blogs at Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS) & Other Rants. Her first book, Off the Beaten (Subway) Track, is about unusual things to see and do in New York City.