3 Skunks, a Wedding, and some wine.
This was something we had been planning for months. Jen's cousin Jon was getting married in Chicago, and we were planning to go. In order to save a little money we planned to stay with my sister Katy and her lovely family. It all seemed easy enough. Originally we had planned to board Zoë, but about a day before we decided to bring her with us. Little did we know this was our first mistake.
The wedding was scheduled to take place at the Wooden Gallery in Chicago at 5:30pm. Since Jen had to work Friday, we wouldn't leave until Saturday. That Friday, Jen got off on time and rolled up to the house about 10:30pm. Over the last few weeks Jen has often had to work late, so having her home by 10:30 seemed like a good thing. She parked in back as always, and I let Zoë out to greet her, as usual. Since we were already paked I went into the house to grab our suitcase. I figured we'd pack as much as we could in the car that night, the better to get an early start the next morning. Suddenly, I got a wiff of something foul. A skunk. It wasn't too bad, but I thought it best to warn Jen that a skunk might be around, so I stepped out side and was assaulted by a wall of stench. It was... overwhelming. I have no words to describe the wretched olfactory assault. It was everywhere, and nowhere. Worried that Zoë might get sprayed (silly us) we go her in the house while we tried to locate the odoriferous Mephitidae. As we searched the odor seemed to move from one side of the house to the other. The smell seemed to change as well, less skunk like and more stink bomb or gas leakish.
Artist's interpretation, We never found the skunks
Stumped, we went into the house, only to find the odor had moved indoors. It was then we realized that Zoë may have been sprayed, if not directly, at leas indirectly. We immediately game her a bath were we discovered that water makes skunk spray smell even worse. Then we bathed her again in tomato juice (from a can of crushed tomatoes). Hint: Tomato Juice does no work. Then we got online and found a formula that does help. Though not as much as much as I would have hoped.
Chemical composition of a skunk's spray. It is the formula for madness.
The formula that works best is:
* One quart of 3% hydrogen peroxide
* one quarter cup of baking soda
* one teaspoon of liquid hand soap (not detergent)
Bathe your pet in this solution and rinse with warm tap water. Krebaum (the inventor) warned that there is no way to store this potion. "If you put the ingredients in a bottle, the whole thing would explode.
The thiols, which are responsible for the odor, are not water soluble, even with soap, but the baking soda catalyzes the oxidative ability of the peroxide, which oxidizes the thiols into highly water-soluble sulfonates. In an episode of the television program MythBusters, the hydrogen peroxide mix was found to be the most effective smell removal agent.
It helped, but the whole house now stunk of skunk, and it was after midnight.
We went to bed, and got up early Saturday morning. The smell wasn't so bad anymore (so we thought) so we decided to continue with our planned trip. We went out to finish loading the car, and suddenly discovered where the skunks had sprayed. They must have been under the car, because the inside of the car reeked of skunk. Ugh.
We debated not going, but decided to do it anyway. So, with a liberal application of Fabreze, we set out for the 5 hour drive in a skunked out car.
It was hell.
When we finally arrived, we all smelled like skunk. My sister was surprisingly understanding, and my nieces were so cute and funny, it made the trip worthwhile. We arrived about 1pm, Chicago time and had time to relax and shower before the wedding. Even so, our clothes had a slight musk to them, but overall they weren't too bad.
The trip from my sister's to the Wedding was uneventful. We hit a little traffic, but we left early enough so as not to be late. We even had time to visit a local landmark. I give you:
The Shit Fountain
A few feet down the block from the Wooden Gallery, The Shit Fountain was created by Jerzy S. Kenar, an artist internationally known for his religious sculptures, who has had enough of people not picking up their dogs doo-doo of the streets. So he decided to make a monument for the dogs and created a bronze sculpture that perfectly resembles dog crap.
The Wooden Gallery is a little art gallery located at 1007-15 North Wolcott.
What a great place for a wedding and reception. And the service was wonderful. Completely secular (No mention of God what so ever) they had a short but touching ceremony. There were readings (My favorite was a reading from Velveteen Rabbit about how love makes you Real) and a wonderful acoustic cover of the Cindy Lauper song "All through the Night'. Afterward there was an open bar, hors d'œuvres, a fantastic buffet, and instead of a wedding cake, do it yourself ice cream sundays. We had a fabulous time.
Scratch and Sniff. The only picture I took of the wedding, and it was of Jen and I.
We didn't stay too late, as we were both tired, and starting to stink again. (Though thanks to the open bar, no one was sober enough to notice.)
We slept in a bit Sunday (Thanks to the time difference) then said our goodbyes to Katy, Steve, and the girls. We boarded the stinky car for our return trip.
The smell wasn't as bad on the return trip. We had a great meal at Gallaghers pub in Paw Paw and stopped at the St. Julians Winery across the street. After loading up on wine, we stopped again a few hours later at the Sandhill Crane Vineyards in Jackson for more wine.
We arrived home a little after 5pm. The house didn't smell so bad (but it still smells a little) I made spaghetti for dinner(chicken, Italian sausage, and chorizo... it was really good) and we had a wonderful evening at home.
All in all, it was a great week-end, despite the skunk.
Oh, yea, I did take one more picture at the wedding:
The Door stop. Hubba hubba!
The wedding was scheduled to take place at the Wooden Gallery in Chicago at 5:30pm. Since Jen had to work Friday, we wouldn't leave until Saturday. That Friday, Jen got off on time and rolled up to the house about 10:30pm. Over the last few weeks Jen has often had to work late, so having her home by 10:30 seemed like a good thing. She parked in back as always, and I let Zoë out to greet her, as usual. Since we were already paked I went into the house to grab our suitcase. I figured we'd pack as much as we could in the car that night, the better to get an early start the next morning. Suddenly, I got a wiff of something foul. A skunk. It wasn't too bad, but I thought it best to warn Jen that a skunk might be around, so I stepped out side and was assaulted by a wall of stench. It was... overwhelming. I have no words to describe the wretched olfactory assault. It was everywhere, and nowhere. Worried that Zoë might get sprayed (silly us) we go her in the house while we tried to locate the odoriferous Mephitidae. As we searched the odor seemed to move from one side of the house to the other. The smell seemed to change as well, less skunk like and more stink bomb or gas leakish.
Artist's interpretation, We never found the skunks
Stumped, we went into the house, only to find the odor had moved indoors. It was then we realized that Zoë may have been sprayed, if not directly, at leas indirectly. We immediately game her a bath were we discovered that water makes skunk spray smell even worse. Then we bathed her again in tomato juice (from a can of crushed tomatoes). Hint: Tomato Juice does no work. Then we got online and found a formula that does help. Though not as much as much as I would have hoped.
Chemical composition of a skunk's spray. It is the formula for madness.
The formula that works best is:
* One quart of 3% hydrogen peroxide
* one quarter cup of baking soda
* one teaspoon of liquid hand soap (not detergent)
Bathe your pet in this solution and rinse with warm tap water. Krebaum (the inventor) warned that there is no way to store this potion. "If you put the ingredients in a bottle, the whole thing would explode.
The thiols, which are responsible for the odor, are not water soluble, even with soap, but the baking soda catalyzes the oxidative ability of the peroxide, which oxidizes the thiols into highly water-soluble sulfonates. In an episode of the television program MythBusters, the hydrogen peroxide mix was found to be the most effective smell removal agent.
It helped, but the whole house now stunk of skunk, and it was after midnight.
We went to bed, and got up early Saturday morning. The smell wasn't so bad anymore (so we thought) so we decided to continue with our planned trip. We went out to finish loading the car, and suddenly discovered where the skunks had sprayed. They must have been under the car, because the inside of the car reeked of skunk. Ugh.
We debated not going, but decided to do it anyway. So, with a liberal application of Fabreze, we set out for the 5 hour drive in a skunked out car.
It was hell.
When we finally arrived, we all smelled like skunk. My sister was surprisingly understanding, and my nieces were so cute and funny, it made the trip worthwhile. We arrived about 1pm, Chicago time and had time to relax and shower before the wedding. Even so, our clothes had a slight musk to them, but overall they weren't too bad.
The trip from my sister's to the Wedding was uneventful. We hit a little traffic, but we left early enough so as not to be late. We even had time to visit a local landmark. I give you:
The Shit Fountain
A few feet down the block from the Wooden Gallery, The Shit Fountain was created by Jerzy S. Kenar, an artist internationally known for his religious sculptures, who has had enough of people not picking up their dogs doo-doo of the streets. So he decided to make a monument for the dogs and created a bronze sculpture that perfectly resembles dog crap.
The Wooden Gallery is a little art gallery located at 1007-15 North Wolcott.
What a great place for a wedding and reception. And the service was wonderful. Completely secular (No mention of God what so ever) they had a short but touching ceremony. There were readings (My favorite was a reading from Velveteen Rabbit about how love makes you Real) and a wonderful acoustic cover of the Cindy Lauper song "All through the Night'. Afterward there was an open bar, hors d'œuvres, a fantastic buffet, and instead of a wedding cake, do it yourself ice cream sundays. We had a fabulous time.
Scratch and Sniff. The only picture I took of the wedding, and it was of Jen and I.
We didn't stay too late, as we were both tired, and starting to stink again. (Though thanks to the open bar, no one was sober enough to notice.)
We slept in a bit Sunday (Thanks to the time difference) then said our goodbyes to Katy, Steve, and the girls. We boarded the stinky car for our return trip.
The smell wasn't as bad on the return trip. We had a great meal at Gallaghers pub in Paw Paw and stopped at the St. Julians Winery across the street. After loading up on wine, we stopped again a few hours later at the Sandhill Crane Vineyards in Jackson for more wine.
We arrived home a little after 5pm. The house didn't smell so bad (but it still smells a little) I made spaghetti for dinner(chicken, Italian sausage, and chorizo... it was really good) and we had a wonderful evening at home.
All in all, it was a great week-end, despite the skunk.
Oh, yea, I did take one more picture at the wedding:
The Door stop. Hubba hubba!