Oddest Moment of the Year

First Entry:

I received a verbal message today - a parent had called, and wanted to speak to the Home Ec teacher. Now, of course, my mind races through the range of reasons why a parent would call for me. My messenger goes on to tell me that the caller wanted to know if I would help her child bake a birthday cake for the mother's birthday.

Today was the last day of the term.
We don't use flour in my class because of my kids with Celiac Disease.
We have a 41 minute block, so a cake would be a 3 or 4 day process (demo, 2 days to bake, 1 to decorate).

I'm really not sure what this mom had in mind. That since it was the last day of class I'd have each child bake their own cake? Maybe she heard about the Grade 8s and misunderstood the scale of our attempts? Does she think I'm going to stay after school for a couple of hours and supervise him preparing the cake??? (Please note that there is a direct connection to "Popcorn and 10,000 Shards of Glass" hidden in this anecdote.)

Since my sarcasm filter is officially broken these days, and I can barely restrain myself around the kids, I'm not convinced I would have come up with a suitable response to this odd request. Well, maybe... I surprise myself when I have to come up with something good off the cuff. At any rate, I'm glad I got the message and not the phone call.

Thus, I submit to you, Dear Readers, the first entry in what will probably be a long list of Odd Moments of the Year. If they're entertaining enough, we can have a contest in June to determine the winner/favourite. I'm sure there will be a lavish and glamourous prize... just let me confer with my sponsors.