Multitasking ...

Marlene Terry

Those who know me are chuckling now. Because after seeing the photo of brown icicle-like formations attached to an ice cream carton, wiener package and other unidentified offerings in my freezer, they know. ... I did it again!

As a mother of eight children, I've always prided myself on my ability to multitask. One thing though, has always escaped my skills that had me dressing three children at the same time, rotating 10-12 loads of laundry so the kids had clean jammies by bedtime, and making sure homework was finished, prayers were said and the dogs, cats and other critters we'd collected, were fed. I've just never been able to master how to get a favorite soda cold in the hurry.

It stands to reason that placing a can inside the freezer for 10-15 minutes is the answer. But it's only the answer if you remember when it was you put the can in there, and then remove it before the inevitable happens ... the flimsy aluminum gives way to the increasing pressure of the freezing soda and ... KABOOM!

The last episode sounded like a volcanic eruption. My hubby and I were out on the deck when the explosion happened.

"WHAT'S THAT?" I yelled being startled awake from a nap.

Immediately my mind went into denial as I counted the possibilities.

"I'll be those kids (cute and innocent little neighborhood children) are throwing dirt clods at the house again," I glared evilly at the thought.

"The suction cups gave way on the soap dish in the bathroom and it CRASHED into the tub." I added the emphasis for my hubby''s benefit and so I could be sure that he was listening intently.

"Maybe the neighbors are remodeling again, and they dropped ... " My ongoing rhetoric was briefly interrupted by his calm assessment.

"It just sounds like to me that you blew up another pop," he said.

I wish I'd recorded someway, perhaps notches in a nearby cabinet door, just how many times I've had to empty the freezer and scrub away for hours, at the frozen fizz, stains and soda stalactites created by my inability to achieve success at this one little task.

Not that all the sodas I've placed in the freezer end up the same way. There have been times when the can stretched out like the belly of a pregnant lady four weeks past her due date, and by some miraculous power has held together long enough for me to remove it from the freezer ... before it exploded. Or the time when the bottom of the can bulged out just a little. I opened it anyway, took a drink, and forgetting about the bulge, set it on the counter and watched helplessly as it toppled over, began to roll and poured out its contents as a marker of its journey to the floor.

Guess I'll just take comfort in the fact that I can handle many other jobs all at the same time without failure. And maybe multitasking isn't all it's cracked up to be anyway.

... I also have a difficult time softening butter in the microwave for whatever the reason. ... Always works well though, if you want to "sprinkle" some on your pancakes.