Stories of Oops

(varying degrees of "oops")

1. So the root beer cake = well . . . I'm calling it a success. Noticeable (albeit a little subtle) root beer flavor (yay!!!!!!!!), but we're both thinking we prefer the taste in cookies (and in drinks - go figure, lol) than in cake. The cake came out pretty heavy, which I'm guessing is just because it's a scratch cake, and kind of dry. I'm guessing this is because when I came to the part of the recipe that said "one or two eggs" I gave the computer screen a bank/puzzled look for a moment or two, then took a shot in the dark and used one. Oops . . . ? We'll see what happens next time I make a cake. Nevertheless, I consider this endeavor a success seeing as it is my first cake from scratch. Definitely something I'll be trying again. At least once.

2. I am so incredibly psyched for all the commercial trappings of Easter. Jelly beans, malted robin eggs, peeps, Cadbury creme eggs (already had two of those this year . . . ), and EASTER EGGS!!!!!! Growing up this was the one time a year we had deviled eggs, so now it feels like sacrilege to eat them any other time. YUM!!! Anyway, Luke and I were talking about Easter eggs and how Luke missed out on all the best years for Easter commercialism since his family was Jewish until he was . . . ten . . . ish . . . ? Something like that. Aaaaaaaanyway, I suddenly remembered this time we were dying eggs, probably about 15 years ago. (We were still in IF, and it was in the height of the Amway days, so I think Aunt Loretta & Co. were there too. Aunt Loretta - does this one ring a bell?) We were using this sweet tye-dye kit that year where you put a couple of drops of two different dye colors in a plastic bag and put the egg in and just kind of smear the dye onto the egg. So mom reads enough of the directions on the box to get us all that much info, and the first combination we decided to try out was purple and yellow. Which resulted in a horrible red-brown color that looked almost like dried blood and utterly terrible. Oops. So we don't do anymore with that bag, but it kind of sucked because the kit only came with so many little baggies so that was one less cool looking combination we could do because it didn't occur to anyone that we could use, you know, sandwich bags or something. And when we're all done I'm reading the box and I notice something written at, I'm guessing, the exact point where my mom stopped reading. "All colors blend together beautifully (except purple and yellow)." I kid you not. Oops!

On the other hand, I remember that year and that egg. How many other years of egg dying have I forgotten, you know?

3. I made a little girl cry yesterday. Oops. In my defense, she brought it on herself. Shaylee is one of the second graders I have a bit of trouble with. Never wants to do anything, always insisting she can't do it or needs help when I know perfectly well she can do it because she's done it before . . . I'm sure you all know the type. But yesterday the class had a sub, and they were all milking the fact that said sub was a sweet old grandpa-type for all it was worth, and Shaylee started out by not quite flat out refusing to come with me when I pulled her out. Ultimately we get out in the hall and she flops herself down at the desk and refuses to get to work. But after two months the Shaylee-drama has really started to get old so after a couple of attempts at getting her going I tell her she has a choice - work with me now, or I keep her in at recess and we do it then. She still doesn't say a word, so I do the classic count-to-three thing, and she chooses "now" at about two and a half . . . but still won't look at the flashcard I'm holding. So I tell her I'm counting to three again and then she's staying in for recess for sure, and she says the word right as I say three. And then promptly has a pretty major meltdown - even for her - because I had started putting the cards away because I wasn't expecting her to actually do it. Anyway, I let her do it then instead of recess because she did start - should there be an oops here too? Should I have sent her in? The good news is she was much better behaved today. I think I scared her straight! :-)

4. So for the past couple of months our doorknob has been getting harder and harder to unlock. Practically impossible. Seriously, we're talking getting to the point that you have to turn the key and knob in a weird secret-handshake-esque combination of twists and turns whilst standing on one foot, crossing your eyes, and singing the Albanian national anthem in Swahili and then if you're lucky the doorknob gods will smile down on you and let you in. This was not really a big deal even a week ago because with Luke on graveyards more often than not one of us was on the inside where getting access to the other side is just a simple matter of turning the handle. You know, the way it should be. But Convergys has outsourced the graveyard shift to Costa Rica (yeah, explain that one!) So now Luke is in training because they're changing things and he leaves before I come home. And Tuesday I come home with my arms full of groceries and I end up having to put them all down because the doorknob gods are choosing not to smile down upon me this day and finally my key snaps off in the lock. Oops. So I go downstairs hoping and praying that Tommy the Handyman is home because A) groceries sitting outside the door, B) it's significantly colder than when I left for work, but I only have a light sweater on, and C) I kinda gotta pee and if I can't get in it will immediately become kinda urgently gotta because that's just how these things work. The good news: Tommy was home. The bad news: Credit card, pliers, and a couple other methods don't work. So Tommy says there are two options - he can call the manager to get permission to call a locksmith, then call a locksmith and hope they're not busy. Or he can try kicking the door in. We do that "look at each other and laugh awkwardly" thing, and I tell him if he wants to try it I'm okay with it, and he kicks the door in. Oops. ;-) It was a lot more anticlimactic than I expected. However there is a very small, very slight indentation in the door that you can totally see if you know what to look for. And it worked, which is really all that matters. And we got a new, much improved door knob and dead bolt yesterday, so everything ended wonderfully happily. Also: turns out both knob and bolt were rusted almost completely. Which explains a lot. Soooooooo glad we have a new one!!! :-)

P. ost S. cript
Okay, I admit I'm a bit of a junkie for A Goofy Movie. And I still kinda really adore the songs. So even though this is only my third favorite song from the movie, this one still lands in my top ten favorite youtube finds of all time. Possibly top five. (Huge shout-out, props, thanks, etc. to Kayla for posting it on facebook!) BTW, ten points if you can spot the awesome Homestar shirt! :-)