Tuesday, February 24, 2009

it's raining eggs


Surfer Dude and a couple of his friends are members of the brand new Engineering Club at their Elementary School, and last week there was a competition held at the college right up the road. They all entered in a couple of categories, but the Egg Drop was the one that made the biggest splash -at least around here.


I'm sure you're all familiar with the Egg Drop. You take an egg and rig it into some kind of contraption that keeps the egg from breaking when you drop it from a certain height. Early last week there were four boys in my house in feverish preparation for the event. They each showed up on my doorstep clutching a dozen eggs and then disappeared into SD's bedroom to work out the kinks. They were engrossed, they were diligent...they were quiet. I chalked the silence up to an overactive sixth grade work ethic and went about my business.


That was my first mistake.


I was in the kitchen putting dinner together when I heard the sound of something hitting the patio outside with a big gushy splat. When I stuck my head out the back door to check it out, I almost got beaned by an egg hurtling way too fast toward the brick patio. I looked up briefly and then jumped back into the safety of the doorway as it began to rain eggs all around me. Four boy's heads peered out of the only screenless window in Gumby's room and watched intently, hoping (futiley) that one of the eggs landed intact. Meanwhile, three dogs peered intently out of the open screen door and as if they were one, bolted out for a little pre-Easter egg collection. I have mentioned they're Labs, right? Before I could get them rounded up, they had each wolfed down more than their fair share of raw eggs. Pieces of eggshell clinging to their muzzles, I corralled them in the house and went to have a word with the Egg Beaters. They sat upstairs, dejected. Forty eight eggs dropped and forty eight eggs broken. It didn't look like this was going to be such a hot event for them, although no complaints were heard from the canine corner.


Forty eight hours later, cleaning up yet another doggie present from the double ended GI Upset Store, I thought they should change the name of the event. The Egg Drop didn't do it much justice. It wasn't a fear of broken eggs that kept us from walking barefooted through a dark room without turning on a light.


Is Cause and Effect even an engineering term?

9 comments:

Maggie May said...

Oh my word.... you get your problems! Boys of this age don't seem to think at all do they?
(mind you, it sounded good fun while it lasted!)
The minute I read about the dogs scoffing down those eggs...... I thought there'd be consequences to that.
I hope the after math is now over & done with......
Pity we couldn't have the eggs for pancake day today! No forget that! Not very nice to be splatted on a patio! LOL

Rudee said...

Lord woman! You've got your hands full.

Irene said...

Thanks for telling me that story. I've never given the Überhund raw eggs, but always wondered if he would like them if I dropped one. I guess the answer is: yes, but don't let him eat it. Was it a very gaseous event? Sort of sulphuric? I guess you had to be there to appreciate it. Sorry that you had such an ugly clean up, or numerous ones.

flutterby said...

Don't these things only happen in cartoons or TV sitcoms? I truly hope the Egg Beaters cleaned up the mess they made on the patio or, at the very least, helped substantially. EEEWWWWW

laurie said...

raw eggs are GREAT for dogs. ditto the eggshells.

just, perhaps, um, not 48 at a time.

Unknown said...

Eggs-ellent post... Sorry, the words typed themselves. I myself am groaning.

Pamela said...

local group does that here -- and one of the winners had a unique way to drop his egg this year. He made an egg sandwich with nice thick bread. Then he stuck the raw egg in the middle and dropped it. Didn't break!!


I wondered if your dog was going to be blowing holes in the windows with egg farts. ouch.

lebanesa said...

hah!
anything else?
One day you will laugh about this and probably tell your grandchildren about how their dad used to be such a dork.
One day
hugs

Cath said...

Oh my goodness. I would be teaching SD the art of cleaning up doggy mess and egg mess!

Poor you. It never rains, it pours! (paws - gettit? *sigh*)

And pours eggs at that! Yuk!