The Curse of Carter's Clothes

I don't want to blame the 10-year-old but there's something suspicious going on -- and the one common denominator is his clothes!

It was only 3 weeks ago when our washing machine conked out, with Carter's clothes inside, and we had to fight Black Friday crowds to get a new one.

Today it was the dryer. Hubby was drying Carter's clothes this afternoon and when he checked on them, they weren't dry at all. So he put them in for another 40 minutes and left the house to go to knee rehab. He didn't realize that even though the motor was running and making noise, the drum was not turning. We easily could have had a fire, but thank God (and we are) we didn't.

Since Jim can't get down on his knees yet, I had to pull out the dryer and dismantle the back a little to see what was wrong. How would I know? Exactly. How would I know? I did not know what i was looking for but luckily (if you call it luck) I spotted the broken belt lying at the bottom of the dryer.

So I call Best Buy (where we bought it just short of 3 years ago) to see if they carry belts. They don't. But Mr. Customer Service said I could order it off their Web site and I'd probably get it sooner. So I hop on our computer, which has been threatening to die, too.

It took me a good 20 minutes to find and order that darn part -- and pay 30 bucks to have it overnighted. Of course I was steaming by then -- a combination of this dryer business and the slow Internet connection. That was when Carter chose to come into the computer room and ask if I could find a box of a certain size and wrap his Secret Santa gift up. Oh Carter, you picked the wrong time!

I apologized later for snapping at him but I had warned him when he asked: "Mommy is stressed right now. Do you really think now is a good time to be asking this?" He felt bad enough so I didn't even tell him I was blaming him and his clothes for these machine mishaps. At least we know better than to let him get near the computer... or dishwasher... or television...