Some things you wish you knew beforehand!

Cooking dinner and relaxing with email...or so I thought. Having never had an official hands on instruction on "things you should know about gas stoves and ovens", I placed a tupperware of crepe batter on the vent of the oven in my new dwelling place, while my chicken roasted happily inside. What I did not know soon became apparent as I sniffed a strange combination of roast chicken, cooked crepes and plastic all in one! Yes, the container had indeed melted and dripped all the contents into the oven below...very messy and very smelly. After kicking myself for creating such an untimely mess, my cousin assured me that at least I didn't try to blow out the pilot light which she had thought to do at one time. I wasn't sure if that was a comforting thought or not. ahem.

Then on a beautiful sunny afternoon, 2 friends and I decided to go cranberry picking. The pickings were good and we had brought along Cooper, the much loved dog of one of the neighbors. Then unbeknownst to me, my wanderings took me straight across an underground bee hive. I am not sure who stirred the nest, Cooper or me, but all at once I was batting and running, dropping camera gear and all with Cooper pawing and rolling simultaneously. The first sting was on my thumb and I didn't remember how really painful a bee sting could be until that moment but then as I ran down to find water to rinse off my skin, the second one took a stab at my neck twice, which instantly started throbbing while sending numbness and shooting pain into my jaw and scalp. Not fun but definitely not fatal. The question continues to befuzzle my mind..."how could one very tiny little wasp inflict so much pain on a big human like me?" While I am trying to unravel this and other mysteries, you might want to try avoiding underground beehives as much as possible, if you know where they are!