At halftime of the first game of the Final Four, our refrigerator broke.

I immediately started moving the beer to a large ice chest in the living room.

Next I made sure the ice cream and frozen pizzas were no longer in danger of melting.

Meanwhile, my fiancee tried to transport nonessentials such as eggs, milk, meat, cheese and fruits.

As I counted and checked the St. Pauli Girls, she stood with an armful, her look boring a hole through the back of my head.

The next day the repair guy comes, and in an hour, he has the thing fixed.

I asked him what was wrong, and he gave me a look like I was an idiot for not knowing.

I did not know that water can freeze the pipes that circulate the cold air through a refrigerator. I did not know that, rather than drag some poor guy who just wanted to watch basketball out of his house on a Saturday, I could have grabbed a blow dryer, turned the fridge off and defrosted the pipes myself.

The only things I am handy with around the house are the remote control, eating utensils and excuses.

I asked a friend about the refrigerator quick fix.

"Duh," was his response.

Does my inability to change the oil in my car, fix a refrigerator, or lay tile make me less of a man?

"Yes," says Evan Roberts, who once helped a friend tile a kitchen after an extended evening of revelry.

I beg to differ.

I am coming of age in an unprecedented era of gender equity and saw my mother do most of the small-time repair work around the house.

I never thought that not knowing how to fix leaky faucets was like wearing a pink shirt.

The numbers back my belief that men and women are splitting household handiness.

By 2010, single women — unmarried, divorced, widowed — will own 28 percent of all homes, Fannie Mae estimates.

In the U.S., Home Depot's "do-it-herself" workshops attracted 240,000 women from 2002 to 2005. In Great Britain, a Halifax Home Insurance survey claims 5.3 million women believe they are the best at home improvements in their household.

I bounced the numbers off of my fiancee's brother-in-law, then remembered the guy grinds himself working for a large local law firm, then takes the weekend off to install wall tracks and tile his bathroom.

In the end I can only blame my father.

The man taught me to read, write, think and question, but never did I help him fix anything around the house.

My grandfather, the handiest of men, tried, but it didn't take.

Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com. Read his daily blog at blogs.honoluluadvertiser.com.