a somewhat terrible story

A little bit terrible.

Okay, this is the first story, not too terrible.

After church this morning, (yes we did get there,) Jay was about to make sandwiches for the crowd. When he reached into the fridge and grabbed the mayonnaise, whoever had used the mayo before this had not screwed on the lid--not at all. As soon as it came over the shelf, he was holding just the lid, while the jar crashed on the floor, splattering mayonnaise far and wide.

The dogs were delighted to assist in cleaning up this mess.

Good grief.

But this is minor. A prelude, if you will.

Later, a lot of people were here for supper. He heated up a huge pan of turkey we'd had in the freezer since Thanksgiving, peeled potatoes, made stuffing and a salad, just a beautiful meal.

As he took a dish of gravy from the microwave, somehow it slipped out of his hands.

(There was discussion on this--was the gravy too hot? The dish too slippery? Thirty years of construction have taken a toll on the sensitivity of his poor hands, the cold mostly, so was that it? He just didn't feel it properly? It's unclear.)

But here goes the gravy, flying. The dish landed flat, didn't spill, but a geyser of gravy shot up that actually hit the ceiling. And drops flew everywhere, in Heidi's hair, on Dan's shirt, all over the place, including one scalding drop that landed on Jay's FACE and burned him good.

He's got a nasty burn from it! Burned by his own gravy. Who could have guessed an injury like that could even happen? Gravy seems so innocent and wholesome.

Maria fetched him a can of diet Coke from the fridge in the office, and he rolled it over his burn for a few minutes until it felt better, and he's tough, shakes these things off shortly, but that's one ugly little burn.

It looks similar to the incident years ago where a drop of molten solder fell from a pipe and stuck in the whiskers of his mustache and burned a nasty spot.

Well. It could be worse.

This was a lovely weekend, lots of wrapping and a lot of fun. It's almost Christmas and the energy is high around here. Even b.g. was attacking the gifts tonight, smacking the bow off one and tossing it around as Alicia tried to contain him.

THREE MORE DAYS as the kids keep mentioning to me. Think we can stand it? love, Val

and i found this, a pic i don't even remember, so sweet, grubby hands and all