Mistakes you've made but can now laugh about...

[Calico]

Do not refreeze melted ice cream, and eat it the next day.

Trust me. You.Will.Live.To.Regret.This.Decision.

 

[braumeister]

When the little voice in my head said "this mayo is oddly different!" listen to it!

Reminds me of DW's first encounter with wasabi at a buffet. She thought it was guacamole and took a big helping.

 

[Nemo2]

Reminds me of DW's first encounter with wasabi at a buffet. She thought it was guacamole and took a big helping.

As a young Australian commented, lo some 50+ years ago, upon tasting caviar for the first time, "This jam tastes fishy".

 

[Closet_Gamer]

24 years old, mid-1990s a year out of school.

I get a call from a Microsoft recruiter. They are forming a new information security group and would I like to be part of it. It will pay a few thousand less each year than my current job but it will come with a pile of these things called "stock options."

"No thanks," I say. "I have some college debt and I don't want to take a pay cut."

 

[MRG]

Reminds me of DW's first encounter with wasabi at a buffet. She thought it was guacamole and took a big helping.

I only wish it was Wasabi.

This cost me three days in the gastrointestinal unit(after 2 days sick at home) of a hospital. Additionally they insisted on a colonocopy. At least the prep was part done.

 

[Free To Canoe]

I love this thread.
So many stories. I am a sucker for a good story.
Cautionary tales.
Informative tidbits (you can drive through the center of Australia!).
Most are just plain funny (if they didn't happen to you).


My story? Where do I start. I will provide one tomorrow.

 

[Meadbh]

I installed a monitored alarm system. The smoke detector was very sensitive to condensation and was located on the ceiling of the hallway close to the bathroom. One humid summer morning, I was showering at 7 am when the alarm sounded. I rushed out of the bathroom in my birthday suit, deactivating the alarm and opening windows. Just as I was on the phone to tell the alarm company all was well, the alarm went off again, cutting off my phone call to the alarm company. Once more into the breach.....and then I heard the siren of the fire engine racing up my street. Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee! I grabbed a towel and ran to the front door. Two firefighters (including one female) were purposefully walking up the path. The woman was carrying an ax, ready to get at the source of the "fire". By this time, the neighbours were assembling to witness the action. I had a lot of explaining to do! The firefighters insisted on coming in to verify that my house was not on fire. All this, while wearing only a towel!

Moral of the story: install an extractor fan in your bathroom!

 

[Sunset]

I told the wife don't clean up the kitchen lets just get going on vacation, who cares if a robber sees a dirty house and dishes and unmade beds, etc.
I drove away for a 2 week vacation, noticing the neighbors garage door was open, and commented on it.
When I returned all the neighbors rushed over to me, turns out I was so interested in my neighbors garage door I had left my house door open (the screen door was shut, but the inner door was open).
After a day, all the neighbors toured the house looking for a bodies.... they looked in every room of the super messy house...

 

[Nemo2]

Informative tidbits (you can drive through the center of Australia!).

And here's the car......just leaving Kununurra, Western Australia...1962. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kununurra,_Western_Australia

 

[Meadbh]

And here's the car......just leaving Kununurra, Western Australia...1962. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kununurra,_Western_Australia

You drove across Australia in an Anglia?

 

[Nemo2]

You drove across Australia in an Anglia?

I believe, if memory serves, it was a Vauxhall Victor:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vauxhall_Victor

But...we made it.....in retrospect.....who knows how?

Here's an addition, that I rarely tell because it sounds so unbelievable.......We hadn't gone far, (and don't forget, we're literally in the middle of NOWHERE), and one of the rear springs breaks.....just as we're passing a temporary workshop set up by a road crew......the odds of winning the Powerball are less.

'We', actually the other two guys, because mechanically I'm worse than useless, jury rigged the springs, and wired a block of wood in them to take up the slack.

Nobody sat on that side in the rear, and we coddled the vehicle for hundreds of miles across gawdawful roads until we could get it fixed.

The angels must (sometimes) smile on idiots.

 

[MichaelB]

I am often surprised to have made it this far given all the dumb things I've done in my life.

We were in a hotel that had a fire on the top floor. We were two floors lower and a couple of rooms off to the side, close to the elevator bank. After we (DW + 3 kids) were safely downstairs I went back up to get something left behind. It didn't take long to realize that how we see people depicted in fires on TV is totally wrong. The smoke was chest high, and after only two or three steps I was on my knees, dizzy, retching and having a hard time breathing.

 

[athena53]

I had a conference on Kiowah Island years ago and dinner was in a separate building. We went there by bus but I chose to walk back afterwards; it wasn't that far. I got lost, which is typical of me, especially with the limited lighting in deference to the local critters. Some of my colleagues came by a car and gave me a ride. They also told me that alligators like to sit out on the roads at night because the tarmac is nice and warm from the daylight sun.

I think some of us have guardian angels who are working overtime.

 

[HadEnuff]

When the prettiest girl in High School asks you if you work out, that is not the real question, so don't walk away.

Ha Ha!!! I couldn't really conjure up one, probably because I find these memories so painful I'd rather forget them than laugh about them, but yours did remind me of one of my stupid moments:

Freshman year at a new high school, real pretty girl who I am afraid to even talk to asks me, after class "are you going to the football game tonight", and I answer,

"no"....

I was so startled that she would even talk to me that I just froze up. I'm sure I looked like a deer in the headlights.:face palm:

 

[Sarah in SC]

I had a conference on Kiowah Island years ago and dinner was in a separate building. We went there by bus but I chose to walk back afterwards; it wasn't that far. I got lost, which is typical of me, especially with the limited lighting in deference to the local critters. Some of my colleagues came by a car and gave me a ride. They also told me that alligators like to sit out on the roads at night because the tarmac is nice and warm from the daylight sun.

I think some of us have guardian angels who are working overtime.

This made me laugh. There are indeed more than a few alligators on Kiawah (just one island over from me) and they do like the warm roadway. Though a buddy grew up over there and she says that despite the teenage years where they wandered around all over the place, no one ever got eaten!

I once was walking on a path in one of our swampier state parks and a baby alligator ran across my foot. I feel like I must have looked like one of those cartoons where you run in the air for a few seconds before your feet hit the ground! All I could think was ... where's mama?

 

[kcowan]

Moral of the story: install an extractor fan in your bathroom!

We have a sensitive smoke detector in the hall outside the kitchen. There is a pocket door at that end of the kitchen and a strong exhaust fan over the stove that vents directly outside. But even so, sometimes it gets set off and is directly connected to the fire department. We have found that using a newspaper to send clean air over it will cause it to calm down in a minute or so after shutting the slider. The fire department waits 5 minutes.

It is getting harder to find a handy newspaper but there is often one by the wood storage for the fireplace., and we swing into action right away! The cat disappears under the sofa. All in under a minute!

 

[HadEnuff]

We have a sensitive smoke detector in the hall outside the kitchen. There is a pocket door at that end of the kitchen and a strong exhaust fan over the stove that vents directly outside. But even so, sometimes it gets set off and is directly connected to the fire department. We have found that using a newspaper to send clean air over it will cause it to calm down in a minute or so after shutting the slider. The fire department waits 5 minutes.

It is getting harder to find a handy newspaper but there is often one by the wood storage for the fireplace., and we swing into action right away! The cat disappears under the sofa. All in under a minute!

Yes,yes yes...been there. In my house, "5 Alarm Chili" does not refer to the effect on the taste buds, but how many of the smoke detectors I manage to set off.

 

[Free To Canoe]

Four wheel drive only

I love this thread.
...
My story? Where do I start. I will provide one tomorrow.

FOUR WHEEL DRIVE ONLY​

Years ago, DW, dogs and I went camping for the Memorial Day weekend to Great Basin National Park (this was when it was Lehman Caves NM). We decided to buy a map and explore the surrounding National Forest as is our habit. After several miles into the mountains we passed the “Four Wheel Drive Only” sign. Against DW advice, I decided to continue on in the light 2WD pickup. About a mile later we noticed that the road turned left and dropped 6 feet. Don't know if I would take a 4WD over that. Tried to back up the hill but the road was built on a gravel like substance (scree?). Got stuck and spent well over an hour trying unsuccessfully to get out. Cried uncle, packed up my ego and all of the liquids and we hiked back out. It was 10 miles on the dirt road to the paved road that almost nobody lives on. Maybe 15 more miles to the park. A very remote part of the world. Who knows how for to a gas station that has a tow truck and wants to help me out on a holiday weekend!

At the end of the dirt road there were two houses. The 1st person I saw offered to pull me out with his 4WD pick up. I was very grateful! He refused to accept any money. It was dark when we got back to camp. After a couple of days DW forgave me and no lasting damage was incurred.

 

[Sunset]

We took a shortcut through Escalante Park on our way to Vegas.
We were smart enough to stop at the Land Management office which was close by, the fellow said to bring water as you won't see many folks, and the drive won't really save time.

It was a long drive, very beautiful, remote, with all sorts of landscape, and I heartedly recommend it, it included double stone arches.

The drive took about 3 hours and there was once spot where the road was like a V and the point of the road was a little washed out, but we drove down and then up with only a little scraping on the bumper bottom.

Right as we were expecting to get to the end we came face to face with this.
Cattle and a river in the way.
After a bunch of waiting and dreading the drive back, I drove along the stream and got out and walked in the water to see if the bottom was mud or solid.
Lucky us it was solid, so I drove at an angle across the water to end up behind the cattle who didn't care to move and then I backed up the little hill.