Sunday, July 27, 2008

Welcome to 'Stuff Chad Does'

I’m seriously considering renaming this blog 'Stuff Chad Does' in light of the fact that there’s no crafting of any kind going on in the Crafty Kitchen. But once again, Chad has supplied me with a story it would be downright negligent not to share. (For other Chad adventures, click here.)

Chad went paddling at the Toronto waterfront today. I stayed home. I knew he’d get hungry, so I suggested that he take some leftover pasta casserole with him for lunch. But, because I am inherently selfish, apparently, and wasn’t going on this outing with him, I did not assemble a nutritious lunch for him. Surely thinking, ‘Huh, wife right. I will be hungry soon,’ he dutifully scooped some casserole into a plastic container and packed it with his paddling stuff. Off he went and had a lovely solo paddling excursion.

Later in the evening, I was washing a few dishes, including the plastic container Chad had taken with him. I kind of smirked as I washed it, thinking, Oops, I forgot to tell him to take some sort of utensil to eat it with. I wonder how he ate it. Probably with his hands. How cute.

When I opened the container to scoop out the remaining few pieces of pasta before washing it, there was also a small piece of cardboard in the container. I recognized this piece of cardboard as one we used recently to modify our car bike rack so as not to put undue stress on a few cables. We cut a few of these pieces (rectangles of roughly one inch by three inches) from a case of beer bottle empties that was in the car trunk. Huh, I thought, here’s one of the cardboard pieces. How on earth did it get in with Chad’s lunch? Whatever…

So I’m washing dishes and smirking because I know he forgot to take a fork, and I ask Chad, ‘So, I forgot to tell you to pack a fork to eat your pasta. How did you eat it?’ Chad starts to giggle. ‘Heh heh, you know what I did?’ Oh God, things are coming together in my brain. The cardboard. The cardboard IN the lunch container. The absence of any utensil. ‘Heh heh,’ says Chad. ‘You know those cardboard pieces….’ I drop my dishcloth and back away from the sink and cardboard piece. No, he didn’t, I think. He wouldn’t. But he did. He used the cardboard piece as an improvised spoon, or crude scooping device, anyway, to eat his pasta casserole.




‘What? I washed it off first! What?’ he asserts defensively. So he ‘washed off’ a piece of dirty cardboard in the foul water of Toronto’s harbour. And then he ate off it. A dirty piece of soggy cardboard. Like a hobo. My husband. I hate to repeat myself, but just when you think you know a guy...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not just any hobo. A classy hobo. A hobo that requires utensils! I like his choice... it suggests maximum shovelling capacity. More importantly, though, he most likely thought (while shovelling contentedly) that he was doing his wife proud by using a self-created utensil instead of eating with his fingers like your average street hobo. I think it might be time for you to start a dedicated Chad blog. He's far too fun/interesting of a subject.

Anonymous said...

Oh chadwick........these men of ours just barely manage to survive when left unattended and don't even realize it! They have no idea how we manage to keep them nourished and bacteria-free on a daily basis.
Would he rinse off the cardboard again for the next meal if not totally teased and tormented about it!? love his antics!

Chad Fraser said...

A couple problems need to be addressed here. First, I wiped the cardboard off with my hand, then rinsed it with the water in my water bottle. I did not dip it in Toronto Harbour. Also, I was as short of wet naps as I was of utensils. Using my hands would have meant getting slippery pasta casserole all over my paddle, jeopardizing my safety and possibly creating a menace to navigation.

Anonymous said...

Remind me to have some cardboard on hand the next time I have you guys over for dinner.

movita said...

I'd like to point out that Chad was being crafty by fashioning his spoon from a found object, thus making this Crafty Kitchen entry craft related.

Unknown said...

I would like to point out that Chad is awesome.