Never a dull moment these days!

As if the moldy shower episode wasn't enough for our household, we had another crazy episode last night! This time it involves an ink pen.

Robbie asked me to throw in some of his work clothes into the laundry last night so that he would have clean work shirts to wear today. No big deal, just toss 'em in. I never check pockets when I do laundry because I never carry anything in my pockets. That is what a purse is for. Funny though, last night I just happened to check the pants pockets of all the clothes and found nothing. So the laundry proceeded as usual.

Hearing the washer beep to tell me it was done, I just tossed all the wet clothes into the dryer and headed back upstairs to enjoy more wallpaper removing. (yes, it has been 9 months since the wallpaper removal process began...but don't even go there...our house is covered in almost every room!) About an hour or so later the dryer beeped to let me know it was done drying our clothes. The devastation occurs next.

I open the dryer door to find blue ink EVERYWHERE! Not streaks, or spots. We are talking full on blue tint of the whole inside of the dryer with large streaks of dark blue. It was like a toilet bowl exploded. I just stood there asking, "Really? Is this really happening to the moldy shower people? Come on! Seriously?!"

At first I wanted to cry because this washer and dryer set aren't even a year old, and they were a house warming gift from my parents. Then my mind focused on trying to remove as much ink as possible to prevent future loads of laundry from being ruined. As for the clothes in the dryer, almost everything had ink on it in some capacity. We found out that the ink pen came from Robbie's work shirt. I feel terrible for not catching it, and Robbie feels terrible for leaving it in there. I immediately doused the clothes in "Shout" to soak overnight. But even the label says that ink is unlikely to come out. So if anyone knows how to get ink out of clothes, let me know please!

The task at hand turned to cleaning the dryer. Nothing was working. I tried every cleaner I had. By this time I had developed quite the high from using these chemicals while stuffing the top half of my body in the dryer. I even had an oscillating fan on at the mouth of the dryer. Then it came to me--I've used fingernail polish remover to remove permanent marker...it's gotta work! I climbed the stairs and grabbed all my little bottles of remover and a fresh roll of paper towels. Success! The dryer is definitely still covered in ink marks, but not nearly as bad.

As I am about done using the fingernail polish remover, the warning label on the outside of the dryer catches my attention. "Do not use any sort of flammable material or vapor inside or near the dryer. This could cause fires, explosion, or death." Holy crap what did I just do? Use only the most flammable liquid known to man all over the inside of the dryer. I am really trying to prove my intelligence these days.

I panicked in a big way, and by now I'm literally sweating. I rushed upstairs (believing that I could prevent the nail polish remover from soaking in somehow...can it soak into metal???) to grab a huge pail of soapy water. Most of my body is in the dryer by now trying to scrub every inch of the dryer, even the parts where I know I didn't put nail polish remover. I'm soaking wet. There are suds all over the dryer, the floor, and in my hair. This process lasted for 2 hours as I quadruple washed every inch of the dryer.

That night as I tried going to bed all I could envision was waking up in the middle of the night trying to break out of our bedroom window as our house was ablaze in a fiery inferno. Would I have time to grab Belle? Would I have time to grab non-replaceable things? So dramatic, but these were the things buzzing in my brain.

After a weak sleep I went downstairs to check out the dryer. The time had come to use it. I needed to wash and dry the inked clothes. Before I put the clothes in the dryer I sniffed around in there to check for "flammable vapors". None. So I proceeded to toss all the clothes in with all of my hopes and fears. I seriously considered using a broom or something to press the start button so that I could be as far away as possible in case of immediate incineration. But I ended up pressing the start button and running for my life.

I am happy to report that the house is still standing and the dryer worked just fine. For the first 20 minutes I jumped at every noise. I am not so happy to report that the ink in the clothes didn't really wash out, but my expectations weren't high.

It all seems so silly and ridiculous now. But it makes me wonder what would have happened if I chose not to be obsessive-compulsive about washing it with soap and water.