I called my mother today to figure out what days work best for me to come home for the holidays. She answered her phone during a meeting:
Mother: Hello?
[Chattering in the background ensues.]
MDIC: Hi, are you in a meeting?
Mother: Yes.
MDIC: Can you call me when you’re done? I want to talk to you about my trip home before I book my flight.
Mother: Oh, okay, I can’t talk about that right now, I’m in a meeting. I’ll call you later.
MDIC: Okay, bye.
Mother: Wait, Laura? Are you still there?
MDIC: Yes?
Mother: Can you do me a favor? I heard the guy from Cook’s Illustrated on the radio the other day and he was talking about this cheese ball that sounded really delicious. Can you do a search and find that recipe? It was on NPR. A cheese ball that you can serve as an appetizer for the holidays. Like, a cheese ball. Sounded delicious. Search on Cook’s Illustrated for “cheese ball.”
MDIC: Uh, okay, a cheese ball. I’ll find it.
Mother: I gotta run, I’m in a meeting.
Good thing her coworkers were busy arguing in the background or they would’ve wondered why on Earth my mother was on her cell phone repeating the word “cheese ball.”
In case you’re interested in making this illustrious cheese ball, I found it on the NPR website. Scroll down towards the bottom.
I can’t say it looks particularly appetizing, but hey. You never know.
5 responses so far ↓
1 JDewDog // Dec 9, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Everything’s better with a chunk of cheeeeezzzz!
2 TimsHead // Dec 9, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Is there a reason your mother defers Web searches to you? It sounds like she knows how to do the search, and certainly one need not be a reference librarian to search Cook’s for cheeseball. And it’s doesn’t look appetizing.
The alternate blog is more of a work and writing and Web blog. Professional, if you will, as opposed to tales of running 5Ks, silly poetry and the like.
3 michael5000 // Dec 9, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Awesome. If I was in a meeting with a coworker who kept repeating “cheese ball” into their phone, I’d assume that Operation Cheese Ball was Go and get the hell out of the building. But then I’ve watched too many movies.
4 Kathryn // Dec 10, 2008 at 2:22 pm
now I have “cheese ball” “cheese ball” “cheese ball” going through my head
fabulous!
5 malahat sunset // Dec 10, 2008 at 9:10 pm
I sure hope the “cheese ball” is accompanying your mom to Aunt Joanne’s Christmas Eve dinner (also hope I am invited!), because I’ll miss it if she (your mom) serves it Christmas Day.
Maybe it would more appetizing if you used a cheddar cheese (you know, the orange kind).
The whole phone conversation sounds like classic MDIC’s mom; it cracked me up!