Three's a Curse

1. I came down this morning and noticed that the fridge door was ajar. The light wasn't on, but it was open. Hopefully, I called Mama, who had already left for work, to see if she had opened the fridge this morning. Nope. (It has a lock, so only an adult could have opened it.)

The fridge thermometer read 54F.

Ugh.

Searches on the web told me that everything but the jams and jellies and eggs and hard cheeses should go. So much food from a recent trip to the wholesale wharehouse: 2 cartons of milk, 4 cartons of eggbeaters, yogurt, ricotta, deli meat, and other things. Oh, the food. Oh, the money. And we'll be lucky if we didn't burn out the motor of the fridge.

But each time I put something in the trash I felt it. Too warm. Even the stuff in the back of the fridge, like that spare carton of milk, weren't all that cold as I poured them out. The butter is the room temperature that you bake with. I guess we'll be making sugar cookies later today, as long as they don't need milk. I haven't tossed the American cheese yet--it's not really food. We'll see if it smells in a day or two. I've turned down the temp and closed the door with hopes that the temperature drops soon.

Extra-frustrating? We haven't had breakfast yet, so no yogurt, no milk with cereal, no coffee with milk.

2. So, I was maneuvering to take the two bags of garbage down the basement stairs and out the door (into the rain) and Albus got into the basement. Never a good place for the cat, or for the person trying to catch him. It's got great hiding places and stuff everywhere like an obstacle course.

But I eventually caught him and got him back upstairs. And got the garbage out the door.

3. Only to lock myself out of the house. In my rush to catch the cat and get the garbage out, I closed the side door, which locks automatically. The kids were inside. I had no key, no open door, no unlocked window, no cell phone.

I went around front and luckily the porch door was unlocked. I went inside and knocked on the window. What a fun game, the kids thought. I asked Bud, who knows how to open the front door if it's unbolted, to open the front door. It was bolted. He came back to the window and I asked him to try to swing the very stiff latch.

Thankfully, with two hands, Bud could unlock the window. And I managed to crawl through.

At least there was applause.