I Cannot Believe I Did This!!! Aye, Chihuahua!

Mamma said there'd be days like this . . . but really!

The chilly (50 degree), sunny and clear morning began with a walk to Corner Bakery for coffee and a lovely cold oatmeal breakfast (Yum!) with a great friend. We had a good visit over our oatmeal then headed off for whatever else our days held (going to work for her, shopping at Trader Joe's and walking home for me).

All that sounds great until you hear that my friend got two parking tickets while we were at breakfast. TWO! Man, if that doesn't add insult to injury, what does?

Working around the house today, I was feeling so constructive. We're leaving for Sacramento tomorrow to be there to help with little Jon as Christy and Rich welcome a new little one into their family, so Neil and I have been getting ready to leave for that wondrous and special event. We're feeling pretty ready with the house cleaned, the car mostly loaded, and everything else set to go.

And then . . . oh, my gosh! Then in a moment of utter stupidity, I picked up two bottles of nail polish, walked quickly down the hall to put them into my purse so I'd be sure not to forget them, and dropped one, kicking it with my next step. Not so bad, right? WRONG! I'd inadvertently left the lid loose and nail polish was spraying all across the hallway onto . . . onto our brand new carpet!

Did we wait ten years for new carpet? You bet we did!

Have we had this lovely new carpet long? Nope, we have not! It was installed the first of August, if memory serves. We've been gone most of the time since then, so we've enjoyed this for about a month.

Did I spill clear nail polish? No, I did not!

Did I spill creamy-colored nail polish that would blend nicely into the carpet? No, I did not?

Did I spill the darkest nail polish I use? Oh, yes, I surely, purely did! Tender Rose -- only I wasn't feeling so tender at that moment in time, but more like an absolutely stupid, crazy, foolish clutz!

And then . . . I frantically fell to my knees, nail polish remover in hand, to begin trying to mop up the mess, and realized after it was too late that perhaps there are better ways to get nail polish out of a carpet than madly swiping the cloth with nail polish remover back and forth. Hindsight is a wondrous thing, but it comes too late, for the swiping motion, of course, smears that Tender Rose color across the carpet like an artist stroking a swath of paint across the canvas.

Did Neil yell and scream, rant and rave? No, he did not!

Did he thoughtfully get down on his knees and help scrub the carpet? Oh, yes, he did, all the while saying, "I don't think this is going to be as bad as you think it is?"

God bless that man! He waited ten years for new carpet, too, and he hardly expected it to get sprinkled with nail polish and baptized with nail polish remover.

When I ran out of nail polish remover pads and had emptied my current bottle of nail polish remover, I jumped into the van and drove to CVS to get more supplies: two more boxes of those pads and another bottle of nail polish remover.

And now, alas, the remover pads are dry, being resoaked numerous times, and the bottle is empty. If anyone lights a match anywhere nearby, the carpet will disintegrate. Maybe it will anyway, given how much nail polish remover it's got on it and how hard I've worked at rubbing it back and forth, round and round.

I'm also concerned about my lungs. Thankfully, I don't smoke as I'm sure right now I'd ignite -- a new form of internal combustion -- if a flame came within 10 yards of my being.

What I'm really thankful for is a patient, calm, wonderful husband who could have been so incredibly ugly about this whole fiasco, but who remained calm, helpful, and uncondemning.

I'm also thankful that this beautiful new carpet is not a solid-colored off-white, like the old one, but a flecked cream with touches of brown and a burnt red color. The Tender Rose blends in better than it would have with the old carpet, and in a crisis like this, you need to be thankful for mercies, large and small!