By Published On: November 12th, 2011

Recently I got a juicer. I was inspired by a couple of documentaries to find ways to improve my diet and being a reluctant cook decided that drinking raw juice fit the bill perfectly.

When I assembled the juicer and prepared to juice some beets I was so excited, I bypassed all the ‘read these instructions first before operating machine’ warnings. Looking at the new, bulky, stainless steel piece of equipment which was going to take up too much space on my counter, I assumed that the plastic container to catch pulp was for the juice, completely blind to the small spout on the opposite side. My first attempt at juicing had a river of crimson beet juice flowing over my counter breaking into tributaries that dripped between the counter and stove and into the cutlery drawer. Ooops. Once I got that sorted out there was smooth sailing, or juicing, until in my excitement to make juice, forgot to put the pulp catcher in place. The wall, counter, vitamin bottles, spice jars, etc., were covered with carrot pulp before I figured out that turning the machine off was probably more effective than trying to get the catcher in place. Ooops again.

I won’t tell you how often I did this. It’s embarrassing and once you pass the mid century mark in your life, you start to worry about what events like this mean for your future. It’s much like scurrying around searching for the glasses you are already wearing. On Sunday, while my husband was making pancakes I offered to make us grapefruit nectarine juice. Once again in my haste and enthusiasm I forgot to put the pulp catcher in place and proceeded to spray grapefruit pulp on the walls, counter, vitamin bottles, etc. I can say with some misplaced pride that I’ve gotten better at realizing my mistake and switching off the machine faster than in the past, though it still is accompanied by loud vocal exclamations on my part. My husband looked at the mess and calmly asked me, “Why’d you do that?” to which I replied, not so calmly, “Because I #@%$ forgot!”

I am not trying to make excuses for dogs not doing what is asked of them but if I can forget stuff, can’t they?

This post was written for Blog-a-thon 2011 to help raise money for homeless animals at the Nebraska Humane Society. Click here to donate!

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