Bid what's in front of your nose

Playing at the club game with an occasional partner, we were having a pretty decent game mostly by sticking to the straight-and-narrow and getting good boards only when the opponents gifted them to us. But once in a while, you have to make a decision and I failed to find the right one on this board.

I was South, holding:

S

Me

♠

J10xxx

♥

Axx

♦

9x

♣

AJx

The auction had gone:

W

West

N

Pard

E

East

S

Me

—

—

—

Pass

2♥¹

3♦

Pass

?

(1) weak

What is your bid?

When I posted this as a poll on Bridge Winners, the votes were 2:1 in favor of 3NT over 3S.  I chose the unpopular option assuming that if I heard back 4D, I could bid 4NT (natural) but over anything stronger, I could investigate slam. My two aces looked extremely powerful.

Unfortunately, with the preempt having removed a lot of bidding space, 3S only served to torture partner. She held:

N

North

♠

Qx

♥

Kx

♦

KQJ10xxx

♣

Kx

Without the Ace of diamonds, she did not feel comfortable bidding the NT game, and so it was in 4S that I played.  I deserved that, for not bidding what was in front of my nose.