Tempting the Gods!

This past week I tempted the Gods - not once but twice. You know, like when you have a string of warm sunny days in April and you wash your kids' snowsuits...that is tempting the Gods. And you know what the Gods do when tempted? In this case, they make it snow!


I have a big anniversary coming up. No, not my wedding anniversary (but Dan, if you are reading this I think you missed ours....and you know what I do when that happens? Or when you do remember a special day with sub-par gifts like brooms, dustpans and tuna strainers? I go shopping!) The anniversary is the 1 year ownership of a fabulous set of dishes - 12 place settings at that. See, I belong to a gourmet club and I just didn't think I could serve up a gourmet meal on the circa 1995 dusty rose and Wedgwood blue plaid serving for 8. Actually, I think the only piece that still had a full set of 8 was the mugs as no one ever used those. So I could serve 7 for dinner but only 5 people could have dessert. I do have good china but so far that amounts to 3 place settings, 2 coffee mugs and a set of salt and pepper shakers - not really enough to set an elegant table for 6. So, when Mom and Dad were visiting this time last year I lamented about my place setting woes and they suggested buying a set of dishes as an early Christmas gift. Long story short - my cupboards soon filled to overflowing with a trendy, squarish set of dishes (note to self - dusty rose and Wedgwood blue plaid was also once a trend!) and my fellow gourmet club members knew nothing of the potential disaster for mis-matched place settings.


OK, if you have followed this far you are probably wondering when will the Gods be tempted. At the time I didn't even know I was tempting them. You know, sometimes these totally random thoughts pop into your head? I don't know about you but I get numerous unrequested thoughts - I think some people call it daydreaming (or psychosis? Wait, that's when someone else is having thoughts in my head!) but a thought just sounds so much more, um, intelligent???? Well, I was putting the brown sugar away in the pantry and all of a sudden this thought just came upon me, "Hmmm...I've had my new dishes for almost a year and I haven't broken one piece, not even a little chip." Crap! I tried to take the thought back. Unintentional tempting of the Gods shouldn't count! Anyway, I know you know where this is going. Not 24 hours later there are a gazillion little pieces of a trendy, once squarish plate on my floor. End of Tempting the Gods, part 1.


The second tempting is one that could result in life altering changes...I painted!


Ben Franklin said that the only sure things in life are death and taxes. Except if you are a military wife and then the third sure thing is that if you paint, even one little room in your current house, then you will surely be posted. We are quite happy here in Ottawa, the kids have great friends and go to a great school, I am just getting back into the workforce after cultivating a network of teachers and friends and Dan has a couple of hockey teams to play on. We have heard rumours that when Dan gets home from Afghanistan he will be moving to a new position downtown. This is good for us as it means a couple more years here. This is bad for Dan as he will join the brigade of the mass transit user (some for the environmental factor, Dan for the "I can't imagine paying 600 bucks a month to park 2.3 miles from my office" factor.) This is really bad for Dan as it puts a kink into his afternoon hockey league - hard to cart all that equipment on the bus! But all things being equal we (Dan) could suffer the bus route to stay here. So what do I do? I paint.


The Gods must have heard rumours about my plan to paint because I was at Home Depot just getting the paint mixed when the rumblings began - before the paint brush even touched the paint! I ran into a military friend and told him I was taking the plunge and painting Erin's room, figuring we'd be here for 2 more years. He gave me that look - you know the one - "are you on crack?" He had heard, just the day before, that Dan was being seconded to Kingston to work with QRTXBP. Now, QRTXBP is not a real military unit but since most of my readers (I think I've grown to 4 or 5 faithful readers - Hi Gary!) know next to nothing about the inner workings of DND, and I cannot keep any of the acronyms straight I thought that this would get the point across just as well.


So, Erin has a freshly painted room and now the only sure things in life are death, taxes and if you are a military wife and so much as think about painting a room expect a posting. Oh yeah, one other sure thing...If I am painting there is sure to be blobs of paint on my clothes, in my hair, on the bottoms of my feet, etc. At least this time I invested in a $4 sheet of plastic and avoided the blobs of paint all over the carpet.