I was minding my own business the other night, lying on the couch, petting the cat. My husband was nearby, playing with his blackberry. The ringing telephone interrupted this peaceful scene. Into the kitchen I went to answer it. I didn’t recognize the number on the caller ID, but it was from a local area code. So I picked up the receiver.

“Hello, hello, is Tony home?” asked a male voice with a thick Indian accent.

“May I tell him who’s calling?”

“This is Arvind, I want to talk with Tony.” Arvind is a good friend of my husband’s.

I brought the phone to my husband. “Who is it?” he asked.

“I think it’s Arvind.” I was a little puzzled, as Arvind is usually one of the most polite people I know.

Tony took the phone from me and started laughing uncontrollably. “You didn’t recognize your own husband!” he said in his normal voice.

It turns out my husband, the technology enthusiast, had set up a Google Voice number, which he could use from his cell phone. I had no idea such a thing existed, let alone that Tony had one.

We, but mostly he, had a good laugh over this one. That I fell for a prank phone call from my own husband was an endless source of mirth for him over the next two days.

While I was a little irked over this incident, in the end I saw it as a reason to be thankful. Thankful that in the midst of busyness, at the end of a difficult and sometimes frustrating week, my husband found the time for a joke, to bring some silliness into our lives that can sometimes be too serious.

Sometimes we all need a little laughter, even if it is at our own expense.