And Then I Stepped in Gum . . .

Calling Thing 1 and Thing 2 . . .

Last night I was doing laundry, and I came across a shirt that Dave had taken out of his exercise bag and put in the hamper. I looked at it closely, and called him. "Dave, you realize this shirt is pink, don't you? It looks like it's supposed to be gray, but it really looks pink." And it did. Strawberry sherbet pink. Which apparently is a color that the mildly color-blind can't actually see. I've been giving him a hard time for weeks about a pair of his pajama pants that have snowflakes on them which have turned the same color pink, and he can't see it.

Sure enough, he came into the laundry room and scrutinized the shirt with a quizzical look. "You mean, right about there?" he asked, pointing vaguely to an area on the shirt. "No, the whole thing is pink. Can't you see it?" He admitted he couldn't, and I told him not to worry, I'd put it in with a load of lights and a Shout Color Catcher sheet, which usually works well for me.

So I wash the clothes, which are mostly the kids' and mine. And I used the color catcher sheet. And when I went to put the load in the dryer, I discovered that the pink had completely left the gray shirt. It's now just a normal heather gray.

But two of my bras -- one light blue, and one beige -- are now a hideous mauvey purpley pink. Everything else in the load escaped unscathed. It's like a scene from The Cat in the Hat Comes Back!

Dave suggested I not try to get rid of the pink by using the bras to clean the tub. What a wit.

posted by Jennifer Morgan, at 2:00 PM