>>I'd like to yank that thing out of the closet whenever the misses is in one of her yelling moods

Whatever you do, don't let her see the meter. The results would NOT be pretty... and I bet things would get even worse if you asked her to stop for a second so you could adjust the range up another 10dB

M60ti, VP180, QS8, M2ti, EP500, PC-Plus 20-39
M5HP, M40ti, Sierra-1
LFR1100 active, ADA1500-4 and -8