Today and Yesterday

Yesterday I made chili in the crockpot. As usual, it was wonderful to realize that dinner was prepared before noon! All day long, however, a strange odor annoyed me. The cleaning lady had been here. Had she used some new cleaner or was she was drinking a particularly pungent flavor of Starbuck's coffee? Had something melted in the dryer? Were the tree lights about to burn out?

Evening came and we ate the chili. The odor dissipated.

This morning, while putting away dishes, I noticed a plastic storage box without its lid. "Strange", I thought. "I always keep my lids with their bottoms." Putting aside the lidless box, I started to put the crockery bowl back into the crockpot and saw something very strange. Instead of a silver-tone bottom, the crock pot had a bright blue surface. Yep, you guessed it, the blue plastic lid had spent ten hours yesterday nestled between the crockery and the metal heating unit! Kevin proved the merit of his college degrees, let the crock pot warm up for a half hour, and was able to peel off the then soft lid. We will live to crock again....and, most fortunately, no police or fire departments were needed! (By the way, Ken confessed to having dropped the lid in the crock pot the previous day.)

This afternoon, however, as I baked cookies I remembered a Christmas about 18 years ago when the local gendarmes did show up.

Eighteen years ago, Kevin was eight. He always loved helping me bake Christmas cookies...mostly because the dough was oh so delicious. The tree was up, the gifts wrapped, Christmas carols were playing in the background, and we were cooking together. It was picture perfect---until the doorbell rang. There stood a policeman asking if Kevin Kosnik lived here. Not yet eight year old Kevin!

Did I know about the suspicious letter that not yet eight year old Kevin had written to a classmate? Did I know that a concerned mother a few blocks away was so freaked by this suspicious letter her daughter received that she called the police to investigate?

Whaaaaaat???????????

We finally put two and two together. Eighteen years ago, we were one of the rare families that had a computer and were the owners of even rarer software designed for children: Reader Rabbit, Math Rabbit, and Writer Rabbit. These programs were pathetic by today's standards, but Kevin was quite enamored of them, especially Writer Rabbit which made it possible for a kid to write some very funny things.

Kevin thought one of the stories he wrote was so funny that, unbeknown to me, Kevin mailed it to his classmate Laura. Laura probably thought it was funny, too, but her mom sure didn't. I was truly amazed that Kevin knew how to address an envelope---a skill lacking by most of my middler school students.

The police officer had a good laugh after reminding Kevin to not send anything to this particular family in the future. As far as I know, Kevin hasn't even had a parking ticket, so I guess this first brush with the law made a big impression.

And I'm probably the only mom around who fears a visit by the police whenever I bake Christmas cookies!