I will tell you a story about something I did several years ago. I may have neglected to tell my husband... My brother and I exchange cash each year for Christmas, but the real gift to one another is in the presentation. We try to outdo each other in finding clever ways to present the cash. Ive baked his in a cake; hes put mine inside a bar of soap, walnuts, and eggs! Several years ago, I decided I was going to put his cash inside a candle. I had a large, cylindrical, plastic candle mold, 5 lbs of white candle wax, and candle wicking. Oddly, the mold had a hole in the bottom. Not a big one, but at least the size of a pencil. I ran the wick thru the hole, then taped it in place with black electrical tape because I couldnt find duct tape. I set the mold in the sink, balancing it over the drain hole, and melted all of the wax in a pot on the stove. I arranged paper bills inside the mold, then carefully started pouring the hot, melted wax inside. I poured the mold half full of wax, arranged the bills, then poured more wax. Then I poured in more wax. And more...what the heck was going on?? I swear, it looked like the wax was evaporating. I was certain I filled the mold 2/3 full, but now it was only 1/2 full, and... OH NO!!!!!!!!!! I carefully lifted the mold from the sink and saw the drain coated with white wax. The adhesive on the electrical tape, when warmed by the heat from the wax, lost its stickiness and came loose, and 5 POUNDS OF HOT WAX WAS GOING DOWN MY DRAIN!!! Holy mackeral, what was I going to do??? The wax drained out the hole in the mold at an alarming rate, and there was no way to stop it without burning myself. Wed had problems with the main drain from the house getting clogged up, and 5 pounds of wax was NOT going to help the matter! My first concern was trying to make the wax keep moving thru the drain so it didnt harden into one big block when it hit the cool pipes in the ground. I filled every single pot and pan I owned with water, set them on the stove, and turned the burners on high. Maybe boiling water would keep the wax moving in the pipes and break it up. I set the empty mold with its waxy cash and limp wick on a plate on the counter. When the water was boiling hot, I poured all of it down the sink in a big rush, saying a prayer as I did so. I had to go to the store and get more wax. I still had to make the candle. This time, I cut out a circle of cardboard, ran the wick thru a tiny hole in it, and slathered duct tape on the bottom. It held, and I made a really cool candle for my brother and sis-in-love for Christmas. Sunnie said he was going to save it until the day when he needed money to burn. :-) I think spent the next hour boiling more water so I could clean the wax out of the pot and the sink. I had to take a knife and scrape it off the stove and counter. Candlemaking is a messy business! As for my drain, it did fine for a while, but a few days later Mark came running into the living room. Dont run any water or flush the toilets! Waters backing up in the garage, and Im going to run a snake down the drain and try to break up whatevers blocking it, he said urgently as he ran down to the basement. I said nothing, but I had visions of Mark pulling the metal snake out of the drain to find it caked with clumps of hard wax. Happily, Mark opened the clogged drainpipe, the snake came out waxless, and he has spent the past 10 years in blissful ignorance of my little candle-making misadventure. And I think he should stay that way, dont you? ;-)
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 17:30:01 +0000
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