The Unkindest Cut

I found it!!!

This morning we were meeting the Cutco rep to have her sharpen my knives (a free lifetime service from Cutco) and when I went to assemble my knives, my big knife, the one I use every. single. day for about the last nearly 30 years was missing.  Neither Walt nor I could find it anywhere.  I knew I had used it the previous night to cut potatoes, but it was not there.  Not on the counter, not in the dishwasher, not even in the garbage, which I rooted through outside at 1 a.m. when all other avenues proved fruitless.

I went to sleep trying to think where else to look, I woke up trying to search every place I'd already searched before, but still no knife.  But then I found it.  

My cutting board was slightly opened just the width of the overhanging counter and the knife was lying between the counter and the cutting board, pretty much invisible unless you go to pull out the cutting board!  But there it was just in the nick of time.,

So the lovely Erin arrived on time, got a cup of coffee and began sharpening our knives.  What a delightful person.  She even sharpened my big chopping knife that isn't Cutco.

We talked about theater.  She's only been to one play (Phantom of the Opera) and she wanted to know if I'm a "famous critic," which made me laugh.  I guess I'm famous in Davis, where I have been the only critic for 17 years and anybody who likes to read about theater has been reading my reviews.  But that's hardly what I call "famous."  Compared to my 3 cohorts for the Sacramento paper, I can't hold a candle to them.

I asked her about sharpening my Cutco scissors, which she does not have the equipment to do, but said she would show me how to send it to Cutco so they could sharpen for me.

I gave her my scissors (the ones on the right on the board) and she said that "these are not Cutco."  I told her that yes they were and that I had bought them from Marta, who was selling Cutco.  She checked them and sure enough, there was the tiny "Cutco" logo.  She was shocked.  She had never seen scissors which looked like that, and brought out her scissors, with the black handle.

Later, I contacted Ned and found out that I probably bought them in about 1998, when Marta was selling for Cutco. 

Anyway, Erin was so excited to see such "old" scissors that she took a picture to show all of her other Cutco reps.

She also gave me a sort of wake-up call about what people her age think about "old people."  I don't remember if she told me how old her mother is but she is already thinking ahead to keeping her safe in the future and let me know that on her mother's 75th birthday, she is taking away her car keys!!!  I will be 75 in 3 months.  I didn't tell her that, but I thought that if her mother feels the way I do, Erin is going to have a hard time on that birthday.  Walt didn't let her know he was over 75.  I wonder what I thought about car keys and parents when I was her age....

And speaking of "old people," I took a piece of our big apple pie to my mother in the afternoon.  I was so pleased that I finally had something "exciting" to tell her about.  The first thing she asks me every time I come to visit is "so what have you been doing exciting that you haven't told me about?"

I told her about our trip, showed her the pictures from Apple Hill, tried to be entertaining (she kept asking me what country it was in) and told her I had brought her a piece of the apple pie we had bought.

When I finished and went back to the chair to sit down, she said "so what have you been doing exciting that you haven't told me about?"

Sigh.

She "found" the container with the pie in it several times while I was there and I'm 99% sure she will never eat it, but I feel good about including her in all the "excitement" anyway, even if she didn't have a clue what I was talking about.