No More Pilates

Perry's hobby is smoking. Smoking meat that is. When he is preparing pork loin on the smoker, he is ALL business. There is an urgency about his mannerisms and tone of voice when he is smoking meat. Preparing pork loin in great quantities for Ben's graduation party only magnified this quirky trait of his. He has quite a collection of tools that he dramatically arranges around him for meat preparation...Trays, rolls of foil, assortments of rubs, spices, and even a scary looking syringe for injecting marinade into the meat. In fact, his tone of voice even resembles that of a surgeon when he is at work. "Scapel!... Paper towels!....Foil pan!.... Stat!" 

Ok, I'm exaggerating, but only a little.

He also loves nothing more than the ceremony of the meat cutting. He has a fancy meat slicer and generally likes to have a committee of helpers around him while he operates the slicer...someone to catch the slices, someone to hold the tray, and help him sample the scraps, I suspect.

The afternoon of the graduation party, he and the meat-slicing-committee were in the garage while I put up decorations in the backyard. I heard him yelling my name again with his clipped surgeon-like tone and I rolled my eyes, wondering what he needed next. "The meat slicer keeps sliding on the table. I need something to put under it to keep it from slipping." Seconds later he followed, "I found a roll of some tan stuff that would work. Can I use that?" I happily waved and nodded, thrilled that he was able to find the Rubbermaid shelf liner. Proud of my husband for being so resourceful and marveling at his sudden ability to find household supplies, I went back to the decorations. 

A few moments later, Sam ran across the backyard with a confused look on his face. "Did you tell Dad he could cut up your Pilates mat to use under the meat slicer?" 

Sigh. I knew Perry's burst of resourcefulness was too good to be true.

Even though summer break is here and I am working out at the Y again, I can't go back to Pilates class with a 2 foot section hacked off the end of my mat. It would be too humiliating.