It smelled like rotten fish.

Now, had this been a load of Jonathan's clothing, I wouldn't have blinked. Among his many other talents and interests, he's an avid fisherman. It's easy to imagine his clothing smelling -- fishlike.

But, no. This was a load of Eric's and my clothing. And it reeked.

Of course, I'm often accused of having overly sensitive olfactory organs. So I grabbed Jonathan as he came down the third floor steps and held out a pair of his dad's underwear.

"Hey, Jonnie. Will you tell me what this smells like?"

He took a cautious sniff. "Bait."

Right. So it wasn't just me. Our entire load of laundry smelled like dead fish.

What to do? I wasn't about to re-wash the entire load. So I did a sniff-test. Certain articles smelled very strongly like fish while others were barely noticeable. I pulled out the worst offenders and put them on a "to be re-washed" pile. And the rest I simply folded and integrated with the rest of our clothing.

Okay, I'll be honest. I didn't feel like rewashing all that underwear. So some of the really fishy pairs got mixed in with Eric's other, non-fishy pairs. I hoped he wouldn't notice.

And he didn't. Notice, that is. Until the following week, when I mentioned it to him.

"You know," he said, "I thought something smelled funny but I couldn't put my finger on it. Yeah, it was a fish smell!"

One wonders how the man could wear fish-scented underwear all week and not think a little harder about it.

So I washed that week's dark load, including the fishy scivvies. The fish smell wouldn't budge. I actually threw away a pair of my jean shorts because they smelled so bad. Eric might not balk at wearing eau de bluegill, but I wasn't going to go there.

What I really wanted to know was where the smell came from in the first place. You know?

And then it dawned on me. The smelliest thing in the whole lot was the pair of shorts -- my shorts. And I have a nasty little habit that may well have led to this laundry mishap. I sometimes stick my fish oil capsules in my pocket instead of swallowing them right away.

Yep. Can you just picture it? A little fish oil capsule inside Jilly's pocket goes through the cold wash cycle without a hitch. Then it hits the hot dryer. It melts, integrating its loveliness into Jill's shorts and all the surrounding pairs of Eric's underwear.

The result? Fishy clothing.

Eric was more than happy with my explanation, since it was clearly my fault and not his (and yes, I did try more than once to pin it on him). Of course, after our discussions about the Mysterious Fish Odor, he decided he could no longer wear his fishy undies. Mind you, he wore them for an entire week before I mentioned anything. So I'm fairly certain this has more to do with Psychosomatic Smell Disorder than it does my laundry mistakes.

What has me baffled, though, is why he hasn't thrown them away. I mean...they stink. They really, really stink.

Not that I spend a lot of time smelling his underwear. Trust me, you don't have to get too close to smell them.

I'm still taking my fish oil every day. The fish burps are nothing compared to the stench in Eric's underwear bin.

There was more fish stink in my future, too. I started to notice my kitchen hand towels sporting a mild fishy odor (I know it well). It was puzzling, since these towels were not in the original Exploding Fish Oil Capsule load.

Then I caught him. Eric had just swigged his cod liver oil and was wiping off the lip of the bottle in my clean hand towel.

"Ack!!! It's you! You've made my hand towels smell like fish!"

He said I could buy new hand towels. And I suppose that means I should let him buy new underwear.

Life was easier before fish oil.

6of my readers are feeling chatty:

At 11:34 AM,  Connie said...

I am truly LOL at the fish burp comment. I so know about those ... blech! I take my Omega 3 capsules and ... well .. you know.

Hilarious post ... I vote you throw the stinky undies away! ;o)

 

At 2:15 PM,  Parrett Five said...

GROSS! I have a keen sense of smell and that fish smell would drive me insane! You sure have a lot of funny stories to share, Jill! :0)

 

At 2:49 PM,  Jamie said...

LOLOL!

Bet Mockie wouldn't throw his fishy underwear away either!

 

At 4:09 PM,  Anonymous said...

great post you really need to blog more

 

At 5:14 PM,  kristen said...

when you say he wore his fishy undies all week, i'm hoping it was a clean pair of fishy undies every day

and i thought my kid's i-pod & pens going through the wash was bad

funny!

 

At 10:47 AM,  Kerrie said...

"One wonders how the man could wear fish-scented underwear all week and not think a little harder about it."


Oh!! Oh!!! Oh!!!!
Laughing too hard to type!!
This is one of the best ones ever. :-D

 

Post a Comment

<< Home

About Me

Name: Jill

Location: United States

I am: Mother to five stunningly individualistic children... Writer of young adult fantasy... Passionate advocate for Women At Home... Madly in love with my husband... In need of Organic Gourmet Chocolate on a regular basis. I've got a Paypal account if you'd like to contribute to the cause....

View my complete profile