I have 9 people coming over to my house for dinner in about 20 minutes.
I just got off the phone with Hayes, who's one of the nine and also bringing pineapple. Thanks by the way (and thanks to Andrea and Sam too!).
But the adventure comes not from my phone call but the reason for it.
At lunch today (a PTSO Thanksgiving feast) I brought up what would be the best way to bake the two breakfast casseroles I made. I was thinking about a rotation of sorts. One in, cook it all the way through. Then the next and through the first back in to warm it up.
You may be thinking, why would you do this? Well, our ovens are about half the size of American ovens and they also have one rack in them.
Part of the reason I brought up the process at lunch is Hayes is a fab cook. I knew she'd have a suggestion. She suggested for me to use a cookie sheet and layer then. I don't own a cookie sheet yet so she offered me hers. How perfect! Another suggestion was to borrow her baking rack from her oven.
After school I went to her apartment with her keys as she was staying after school to do some school work. I got into the building and apartment. Easily found the cookie sheet and took the rack out of the oven. Walked out the door, put the key in the lock and was stuck.
The key literally was stuck in the lock. Sigh. I tried a variety of manuevers...open the door and twist. Close the door and wiggle. Wiggle and twist simutaneously. Nothing was working. I called Erin to see if her lock was tricky and explained what was happening. She said she hadn't had problems with it but to seek out help from the portero.
I took a deep breath and headed downstairs to the portero for help. Luckily now I speak enough Portuguese to work through the play-by-play with him. He told me he thought I'd stuck it in upside down. Erin's key has the same style teeth but a different handle (no clue about key lingo). At this point I called Hayes again to let her know what I'd done. She was a good sport but had to be thinking, "how hard is it to lock a door?" He gave me a smile and we took the elevator back up to Erin's apartment.
As soon as we got there, I realized I'd done just what he thought. Stuck it upside down. Sigh. He did a little wiggle and then asked if I had another key. I for the third time called Hayes. No luck. No second key.
At this point our only option was to call a locksmith. Also at this time, I'm feeling a crunch because I'm supposed to be getting ready for dinner club. We took the walk down to the elevator. The portero was great. Very friendly, made me feel as though I wasn't a complete idiot (even if he was thinking it). He told me he thought it should cost about R$50 (about $25 USD).
Once we were back downstairs, he found the number of a locksmith, called and got a price quote. Unfortunately the cost was R$50. Sigh. And this is not even my lock and my friend was doing me this huge favor. I'm an idiot. I called Hayes a fourth time to update her on the happs. She as usual was gracious and understanding but I'm sure thinking, never again will I loan my keys to Megan for anything.
So, I left the R$50 with my new friend and told him Erin would be back in about an hour. The good news is that they were easily able to fix it. Erin arrived home about 6:15 and she was handed her keys and a receipt. All is well.
And in case you're wondering, the baking rack worked so at least something good came out of all this stupidity. Bon appetite!
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