Happy St. Patty's Day!

After that political speel, you deserve a generous portion of humor, with some irony on the side. Well, perhaps you don't derserve the irony, per se, but as it so happens, it comes with today's special - my exciting life.

Today, I had to help my parents pick up a freezer they had ordered from Sears; and, after we had gotten the thing in the truck, we decided that it would be fun to go to McDonalds and have Shamrock shakes. It was, after all, St. Patty's day.

We also decided to do lunch, and since the dog was with us, we we tryng to figure out how to keep the food away from him and get it distributed. Mom was trying to hand Dad his food - Dad was sitting in the back, and was not really paying attention to the chaos up front. But when mom turned to hand him his bag of food, he didn't notice, and therefore didn't take it right away.

Meanwhile, the shakes sat *safely* in the drink holder, perched on her lap, and as she turned to hand the food to Dad, the shakes migrated slowly southward, towards the Knee region, and then, it was off the cliffs of her knees to the great chasm of the truck's floor beyond. I'm trying to pull into a parking spot, but I'm yelling that the shakes are falling, mom is yelling for Dad to grab his food and Dad, bless his soul, is wondering what the hurry is.

Dad takes his food - and his shake - (notice the emphasis on his here -- he is quite unconcerned at this point), but it is too late for our shakes. About half of the contents of each cup is splattered on the floor; a very green, very ice creamy, gooey mess.

Luckily, I have a puppy; which means, that like any good parent, I have to be prepared. I have a towel, and baby wipes, and a plastic bag, for accidents. It comes in quite handy, and as mom is trying to wipe up the shake mess, the dog jumps onto the floor and laps up the stuff in rapturous joy. He now has a green beard, and does not want to let mom wipe up the rest of the shake mixture, but she's ready to get back inside.

We go back through the drive-though and re-order a shake (since there was about half of a shake in each cup, we managed to salvage one shake. Of course they recognize us (one tends to stand out with a dog in the car that has traces of green shake on his face and is grinning like a maniac). After giving the McDonald's employees a good laugh, we head for home.

As I carefully round a corner, I hear a sound of panic from the back. "Arughhhh!!!!"
I hit the brakes and look in the rearview mirror. "What???!!" I ask, sure that we have lost the freezer.
"I dropped my cup," my dad says. This is all he says.
"Oh, no," I say, "is there a mess?" (my truck!!!!!)
"No," Dad says, casually. "The cup did a flip and landed upright and the lid even stayed on." He thought this was a somewhat interesting display of science. I was just glad my truck wasn't covered in any more green.

I don't think I'll be lettin people be eatin' shakes in me car, now.

Getting home was interesting then... but getting the freezer inside was... a challenge. I tried to back the truck up to the door and one parent is yelling one instruction, and the other parent is yelling something else. I finally let my dad back up, and my mom was still yelling, "go riiiight, go righhhht". *sigh*

After much careful maneuvering, we got the freezer to the door -- and inside. The yard now looks like the Grand Canyon, with the deep ruts the truck has put in it, and the drive way looks like a mud boggers dream. Fine for a truck, bad for a car.

We managed to unload the freezer, amidst a barking and excited dog, a cat that decided it was a good time to puke, and a phone that was ringing as soon as we pulled in the driveway.

Now I'm at work and as ironic as it is, I finally have some peace and quiet. I thought one got peace and quiet when they left work...