What a mess!

Masha has the stomach flu, but she seems to be feeling much better! Today, however, has been a strange day filled with mishaps. My wonderful 9-year old daughter who does know all too well the dangers of the old-fashioned mercury filled thermometers, managed to drop one and break it sending a thousand mercury balls rolling around the room. Hmmm... very dangerous... I sent everybody out of the room and started the big clean-up. This was the first time I had to clean-up hazardous materials... equipped with rubber gloves, I started trying to connect the little balls into one large one. I used Sonik's nose cleaning syringe to pick up the ball, the rest of them were picked up by two pieces of paper.... Now mercury, the broken thermometer, syringe, gloves, paper are all sealed in two zip-lock bags and sitting outside. I have to investigate where I am supposed to take this waste now. What a hassle! I do like the old-fashioned thermometers as I always get an accurate reading, unlike the battery operated ones that actually are only accurate when the battery is brand new. But now I will have to rethink the whole thing. This was quite a nightmare. Masha was terrified of the health consequences as well as my anger (poor baby)... to tell the truth I was annoyed.