Peter Sellers, where are you when I need you?  2 days ago,  Jrb and I went to my newphew’s 8th grade graduation party.  Everything was going as planned, family chatting, kids playing in basement, pizza being eaten.  It was about 7:00 PM, which I was keenly aware of because I was doing my “regular” Mommy on a Shoestring segment the next morning on You & Me this Morning on WCIU in Chicago.  I was supposed to be there by 5:40 AM, which means I leave my house at 4:45 AM, making my wake up call somewhere between “Last Call with Carson Daly” and the crack of dawn.  So I gave JRB a 5 minute warning so we could get home and get ready for bed.

Of course, jrb didn’t hear me because he and his cousins found the one closet in the basement that is not finished and has  an exposed wall of PINK insulation.  This is where Pink Panther comes in because you most likely have seen the commercial where the pink panther dances around the insulation while a voice-over explains why this insulation it is the best insulation EVER!   The problem is: It’s pink and looks like cotton candy which gave JRB the fantastic idea that he should feed the delicious looking treat to Ziggy, my nephew’s new puppy.  Sure, why not?  Puppies love cotton candy / insulation.

So Jackson pulled a chunk of the wall upstairs to feed Ziggy.  What followed was a series of phone calls to poison control for humans and dogs, an emergency visit to the vet, and a  lot of “you can not feed the dog anything unless a grown up says it’s okay.”  ”You can not pull anything out of the wall not matter how yummy and delicious it might look.” ” I am glad you remembered you are not supposed to eat cotton candy.  But that still doesn’t mean you should give it to  the dog.”  Jackson’s dad called in the middle of all this and told me that if Ziggy died, we should not tell jrb because he didn’t want “Ziggy’s blood to be on jrb’s hands.” thanks!

In the meantime, the Black Hawks won the Stanley Cup so when I got to the TV station the next morning, the city of Chicago was still celebrating.   Chris DeRose (who was there to talk about the coolest bookstore) was bleary eyed after being up past 1:00 AM, watching the celebration in Wrigleyville.   Me?  I was up at 1:00 AM too, praying Ziggy wouldn’t die, JRB wouldn’t develop a rash (from touching the insulation) and what could I be doing differently as a mother, besides supervising him more and reminding him not feel chunks of the wall to the dog?

In the end, Ziggy survived, jrb has moved on to peeling the wall paper and my segments went well!   In one, I made Faux Sushi (which was inspired by Mandy Heaston’s blog, www.gourmetmomonthego.com.  If you haven’t visited Mandy’s blog before now’s the time, she is a genius when it comes to fun foods for the family.)

As for the segments?   Click here to watch!  Shoestrings and Peace, Beth