DISASTERS IN THE KITCHEN

[Evelyn Laden]

This sounds like a soliloquy, with two consecutive posts from me! But I was reminded of a food-related, if not kitchen-related disaster that occurred while I was in Florida, attending several meetings some years ago.
Friends had invited me to visit them for a few days after the meetings were over. They lived in the country, not far from Miami, on a property that included a barn for their horse Pete. When I arrived, instead of welcoming me with open arms, they were in hysterics. I soon found out why: Ed, a pediatrician, as usual had brought home the day's checks, for his wife Lucille to do the daily bookkeeping for the practice. He had also brought some groceries she had asked him to pick up.
Coming home, he stopped at the barn to look for Lucille, and then both went back to the house. A short while later, he realized he had left checks and groceries in the barn and went to retrieve them. To his horror, he discovered that Pete had eaten the checks as well as the lettuce and other tempting morsels in the grocery bag. Instead of having drinks and excellent hors d'oeuvres for which Lucille was famous, all three of us were on our hands and knees picking up bits and pieces of checks Pete had carelessly tossed on the floor.
Ed would have to come up with a plausible reason for asking that day's patients (or rather, their mothers) to send another check.

[Daisy]

Here's another kitchen story.

When we still lived in New Orleans, we of course kept our cats' bowls in the kitchen. This was almost 30 years ago! We were recently married, and lived in a small apartment at the time. We also had a hamster named Rosie. Rosie was NOT supposed to be in the kitchen. But we noticed that she always had a supply of cat food in her little house, and neither of us could remember putting any in with her. Then one night we heard the top of her habitat making curious noises, and what sounded like something scuttlinbg down the back of the wall. We were not sure what it was, but didn't turn on the lights. A few days later, we caught her in the act. Rosie was pushing back the opening on the lid and escaping by slithering down the wall, using the back of my dresser to help her shinny down. She went into the kitchen, went directly to the cat bowls, and loaded her little cheek pouches, then went right back to her habitat. How she figured this out, we still do not know, but she must have decided to get out and go for a walkabout and discovered the cat food, which was worth taking home for later. And the cats? Well, we had four of them at the time, and not one of those stupid hairballs had the foggiest idea of what cats should do about pilfering hamsters. Tasha-the-Terrible and Koko (the first), shown in the photo below, certainly had no clue. As for Rosie, she wasn't the slightest bit intimidated by four stupid cats, and lived to a ripe old age of four years, which is pretty good for a hamster.

(Sorry the picture is so big)



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[Gary]

No kitchen story of my own as I can't cook. I imagine killing a kraken--especially in the kitchen--to make an appetizing dish out of would make a most interesting story.

As for Rosie...lived to a ripe old age of four years...

If she lived for a mere four years, then it took her even less time to figure out how to do that. Impressive!
BTW, cute Mikado girls signature, Daisy.