My wife has a tough life. Besides the obvious, being married to yours truly, Autumn is the mother of two young girls.

Make that one hyper 2-year-old that has two speeds, wide open and stop, and a 3-month-old that is more than just a little bit clingy.

To make matters worse for my wife, I’m out at ballgames anywhere from 2-4 nights a week — and occasionally five or six. Rest assured, I hear all the time that I need to be home more, I think in large part because she has a very challenging, tiring job and she could use the help at night.

I think maybe sometimes she likes the company of her wonderful husband — nah, that can’t be it.

There’s a sports angle to this, just be patient.

There are advantages for my wife to being out most nights.

For the most part, I take care of my own dinner because I’m usually gone by suppertime and she has control of the TV at night.

See, this works well for her, especially on Friday nights. The number of Friday nights that I’m home in a year can be added up on one hand. Football, basketball and baseball games are on Fridays, which actually makes my wife happy.

There’s this show that she watches religiously every Friday night — The Ghost Whisperer.

I hate it more than a little bit.

To make a very, very long story short, the show is about this woman, portrayed by Jennifer Love Hewitt that sees and interacts with dead people.

Friends, she loves this kind of stuff. She loves ghost stories, vampires movies and basically anything that would give me nightmares.

The local high schools made the mistake of not having something for me to cover on Friday nights a few times this school year and I’ve been forced to sit through this.

If she’s not watching the ghost stuff, she’s watching Jon and Kate Plus Eight.

I’ve said so many times — we live in a madhouse with two young children, why should we seek entertainment/relaxation from watching the lives of a couple with eight kids? I just get ulcers.

Well, last night, after putting the kids to bed, we were able to sit down and relax, and we found something we both could agree on.

My wonderful wife sat down with me and watched the Duke-Wake Forest basketball game.

We have a mixed marriage — I’m an N.C. State fan and she’s a Dukie. We have a mutual understanding that I pull for the Devils when they’re not playing State and vice versa. But most importantly, we always pull against the Tar Heels.

We watched the Dukies nearly blow a 22-point lead, but they held on for a huge ACC win.

Friends, the secret to a happy marriage is to find common ground.

For the Snows, it’s the love of our kids, ACC basketball, and the desire to see the Heels lose every game.

On a related note, here’s a marriage tip from former East Carolina football Steve Logan that he shared on his radio show.

“The secret to a happy marriage is spread punt. No offense, no defense, just punt the football. Unconditional surrender.”