I know it’s really close together to blog again, but this is probably a once in a lifetime event and it must go down in the blogging history books.
It was a typically Sunday evening. Well, as typical as it can be after Nate falls on his backside just walking across a parking lot. Michelle and Nate were preparing a Suddenly Salad, and Nate had finished boiling the noodles and had just strained them while happily chatting on the phone with his dear father. Michelle was putting together the other ingredients for the salad and got the milk out to add it to the mix, and whilst she was removing the milk cap of a freshly opened gallon, she set the carton down for a second. What she didn’t realize for a few seconds was that the corner of the carton was resting directly on top of the hot burner (which Nate had forgotten to turn off). This is where it gets interesting, friends. Here is a brief physics lesson: if you put a plastic carton on a hot burner, within a few seconds, a hole or two will result. With the weight of a gallon of milk on the fluid located at the hole, the fluid quickly disperses into every direction.
Michelle had the appropriate reaction. She busted up laughing so hard she couldn’t do anything else other than to hold the carton above the floor and watch the floor as it got a milk bath (but at least the floor is soft now).
We now turn to Nate’s dad’s perspective of the events. He was having a leisurely Sunday evening conversation with one of his favourite sons when suddenly his son is saying “pitcher, pitcher, pitcher, pitcher!” and so on about a thousand times. Of course, his dad hears it as “picture” and not “pitcher”, so he’s left wondering why a picture is suddenly more important than himself. Of course, Nate being the excellent son that he is, quickly clues his dad in on the crisis while he grabs the blender from the cupboard (as Michelle had replied that all the pitchers were dirty).
Having gotten the situation temporarily under control as the milk spilled out of two holes and into the blender, Nate found the cap for the milk and put it on the jug and turned it upside down. Meanwhile, Michelle had cleaned up a dirty pitcher and they were prepared for transfer to another container. Nate placed the carton over the pitcher (the carton was still upside down), and removed the cap. Once again, physics teaches us that once a hole appears at the bottom of a gallon of milk, milk goes everywhere. In layman’s terms, you get a volcanic eruption of milk. At this point, Nate, the counter, the burner and surrounding stove, as well as the floor (just for good measure) are all plastered with milk, and we could do nothing but bust a gut for the next several minutes as we cleaned up the mess.
The moral of the story? Always obey the laws of physics, and never put a milk carton on a hot burner.