Aug 26, 2010

Misfortune: uninvited but never unescorted

You know that old superstition:  bad things come in threes, misfortunes never occur singly.   Or the inverse: third time is the charm.

This week I'm gearing up for a yummy brunch with my Highland Heights secret sisters.  I've been eagerly looking forward to this for a long time - it's a new event for this year and will kick off the 4th annual cookbook, which is - of course - brunch recipes.  We're also doing something special for our members heading off to college.  (Shhhh, it's a secret.)  The morning promises to be a lot of fun.

And the summer months have seen me backslide on my New Year's resolution to show more hospitality, so this will help make up for lost ground.  (If you have 15 or 20 people over at once, that's the equivalent of least 4 or 5 small dinner parties, right?)

As I work on getting everything just perfect for my guests, I've already had two mini-catastrophes occur:

1) The light switch in the hall bathroom shorted out a few nights ago.  As in smoke drifting from the switch.  Eeek!  Fortunately we caught it before it caught anything else on fire.   (Sidebar to dad:  Yes, I checked the wiring and insulation in the attic before going to bed.)  Back when this house was built, they still used real metal boxes for switches and plugs.  Made of real steel, probably forged right here in the  good old US of A.  We'll pull new wiring and replace the switch, but the box is intact and I don't think I'll have to do any touch-up painting or drywall patching.

 2) I've managed to severely injure my right foot this week.  I'm gimping around, unable to put full weight on it.  Some day I will learn to listen to my body - the foot was tender after Monday's run, but I was determined to get in a good run on Tuesday, too.  And now I'll pay the price for my stubbornness by hobbling for a few more days and gobbling naproxen caplets like they're candy.  And the weeds are NOT going to get pulled like I had planned.

But my real concern is, when will the other proverbial shoe drop?  Does the printer running out of toner count as a bona fide third catastrophe?  (New cartridge won't arrive until next week.)  These things come in threes, or so *they* say.  (Then again, *they* say a lot of stuff that isn't based on fact.)  But just to be safe, keep your fingers crossed for me, and maybe toss a little salt over your shoulder if you get a chance, okay?

August 30 Postscript: My third mishap was indeed technology related, but in other (better) news, my foot is nearly 100% again , the electrical connections in our house are good to go, the brunch went swimmingly and the toner cartridges arrived courtesy of good ol' UPS today.