(no subject)

[ralphmelton]

It's been a night of things going wrong.

Our first attempt at grilled pizzas had a bunch of burnt parts on the pizzas. Still seems like a worthwhile experiment, though. (And the grilled locally-grown corn was super-delightful.)

One of the cats left feces on the kitchen floor--which I discovered by stepping in them.

After dinner, my big goal for tonight was to assemble some bookshelves from IKEA.

First I had to trim them to fit our moldings--and while sawing one piece, the flimsy particleboard split apart. (Though in an inconspicuous place.) I had to glue it back together.

Our cat Duke got down into the basement while I was cutting the pieces, and then managed to escape out to the yard. (We still don't know how he escapes there.) He managed to resist both blandishments and pursuit for quite some time.

I misplaced a screwdriver I was going to use for the shelf assembly. I've put it in some place that was convenient in the course of the hunt for Duke, and I have no idea where it is.

When I first started to assemble the shelves, I put dowels in some holes that weren't supposed to receive dowels. I had to use pliers to get them out, and pinched myself hard enough to create a blood blister in the process.

I put one of the sockets for screws the wrong way into its hole, and it fit so snugly that I had to use a magnet to get it out.

But I finally got the shelves assembled. They need to be attached to the wall--but that would involve using the drill, and the battery is dead on the drill. This might be just as well; with the way my night is going, I'm not sure it's a good time to put holes in my wall.


I've strived to train myself out of cursing, but I've been cursing a lot this evening.

Comments

[ralphmelton.livejournal.com]

Finally found the screwdriver--in my pants pocket. Sheesh.

[eub.livejournal.com]

Well, aren't you happy to see it?

[magentamom.livejournal.com]

I've had those sorts of days. It's best you didn't use the drill. Hope today is better. :)

[mrpeck.livejournal.com]

Wow, that is an impressive streak.

[wtimmins.livejournal.com]

I've had days like that.

Not as bad, but recently I had a morning where I managed to drop the contents of an egg on the edge of a counter, whereupon it fell to the floor. Cleaning up eggwhite from the floor is a ... strange task.

Then, nuke-poaching the eggs... carefully, low setting, almost always works fine. But one was still a little runny, so I do a few bursts of more intensity.

Poke the egg that hadn't been so runny and BOOOM! It exploded, showering the immediate area with yolk bits.


Again, not nearly as bad, but hey.

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

I love grilled pizza. What do you think the issue was? I've done it without problems before, but I'm not sure what we're doing differently. Gas or charcoal grill? Were your flames just too high?

[ralphmelton.livejournal.com]

We used Pillsbury Pizza crust, which was pretty thin and stretchy. I suspect that this made the crusts thinner, and therefore they cooked faster than usual.

It's also true that our (gas) grill tends to cook a bit hot--the 'medium' setting on our grill may well have been hotter than the recipe meant by 'medium'.

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

It's very rare for the cats to not use the litterbox. I only hope that the cat was sick and that this was not the beginning of something new and terrible.

For those wondering, we clean the box at least every other day.

[lothie.livejournal.com]

*squeeze*

[cellio]

Ouch. I hope today is going better.

Hunting for a black cat at night sounds challenging. How did you manage to catch him?

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

The secret is to close your eyes.

[ralphmelton.livejournal.com]

I think the full process was something like this:

- Suspect cat has escaped house.
- Check outside. Hear jingle of collar in bushes near steps.
- Shake can of treats to lure cat out. No luck.
- Ralph invades bushes to flush cat out. Lori fails to catch him when he bolts.
- Get flashlight. Stalk cat with flashlight for a while. Try to get close, but cat dashes into other bushes when Ralh lunges for him.
- Lori tries to entice cat with wet cat food. Cat is not enticed.
- Cat slips back into bushes near house.
- Attempt 'invade bushes and flush cat' plan again. Spot cat hiding in corner. Reach in and grab cat's collar. Branches complicate a firmer grip.
- Gradually arrange self to grab cat by a leg. Haul resisting cat out. Grab another leg of cat for security and carry cat in, without much regard for cat's comfort.

There may be details that I'm forgetting.

[cellio]

without much regard for cat's comfort.

I should think not, after all the hassle he caused you. A little discomfort would be good for him (though probably not a deterrent; their brains don't seem to work that way).

[mg4h.livejournal.com]

That's the kind of day where I just sit down in front of the TV, put on a brainless movie, and vow to do nothing I absolutely have to because it'll just break. I also start wondering if I'm living in a comedy of errors real-life show.