Monday, January 11, 2010

Triumph & Tragedy

DISCLAIMER: Please do not be alarmed by the title of this blog post. No physical harm or injury has befallen any members of our household.

So it's been a crazy week! Drew's sister Kelley asked me to make cakes for her cutie kids because they were going to have a combined birthday party. She let me have free reign with the design of the cakes, only specifying that they should go along with the carnival theme. So the first dilemma was deciding on what they should look like. We had already done a carousel cake for Abbie's birthday carnival, so that was out. So after much searching and about 9 hours of baking and decorating here's what I came up with:
Sean got a chocolate "hotdog" cake with peanut butter filling (quite delicious if I do say so myself)


And Katie got a berries and cream "hamburger" cake.

So the cakes were the triumph of the week (mostly because I finished them on time and don't have to stress about them anymore) and now for the tragedy.

While make the cakes on Friday I had taken off my wedding ring and placed it on the paper towel holder because I didn't want to get sticky fondant and nasty food coloring all over it. I didn't think about it until that night at the party and made a mental note to self that I should put it on when I got home. Well my brain really is not working right lately and I can't seem to retain thoughts and/or information for more than about 45-60 seconds, so needless to say when I got home I forgot all about my ring.

The next morning was Saturday and so we all got to work cleaning the house. I had cleaned the kitchen and hadn't even thought to look for my ring. One of the last things to clean was the kitchen table and there was a vase of old roses that needed to be dumped out. So Drew threw away the roses and I dumped the nasty water and the few remaining leaves down the drain. I flipped on the disposal and

GGGRAAGHHROARAAAAARAUGGGGRRRH!

"That sure doesn't sound right," I said as I flipped off the switched. I figured it must be some cooking utensil or something because this is not the first time we have heard that sound in our house, but as I reached down into the drain and closed my fingers around the mostly round object, my heart sunk. I lifted it out and glimpsed at it for only half a second before I couldn't look any more. It was my wedding ring. And it was not in good shape. I held it my hand and instantly started to cry. "It's my ring!" I gasped as Drew came over, asking to see it. It took a minute but I was finally able to open up my hand and closely inspect the damage. Sweet Drew just gave me a big hug and let me cry into his shoulder. He is so wonderful! I LOVE THAT MAN! He was very understanding. I honestly have no idea how it got down the drain. Although the paper towel holder is next to the sink, it is still a good 11 or 12 inches from the edge so it must have gotten knocked into the sink by something. Guess I'll never know. So here's the damage:


These pictures really don't do it justice. The ring isn't even round any more. The gold is completely chewed up and five of the small inlaid diamonds from one side are gone. I just thank my lucky stars that the center diamond is still there!

We went to the store Drew bought the ring from but unfortunately they do not have the same setting. It's been over 10 years since he bought it and it seems as though things in the jewelry biz have gone up in price (if you can imagine). To get a setting similar to mine will cost us about $850. Holy crap. That one's going to have to wait a while. In the meantime I have purchased a $7 fake ring from Kohl's to fill the gap on my left hand.

Well there you have it....my triumph and tragedy...at least for this week anyway.