The Great Cereal Mystery

January 22, 2009 started out like any other day. This is my alibi.

11:17am: I woke up before the alarm.
11:30am: Alarm went off. I turned it off.
11:45am: I walked to the kitchen to make coffee and breakfast.
12:15pm: I started working on articles. Between this time and 4:00pm I had several interruptions but managed knocking out 3 articles.
4:00pm: I made lunch for Patrick. (the kids are pretty self sufficient)
7:30pm: I took a shower and got ready to leave.
8:05pm: I dropped the slightly overdue books off at the library’s drop box. Meanwhile grumbling that 2 days worth of late fees on 7 books is gonna cost me!
8:10pm: I arrived at the grocery store where I purchased 2 boxes of cereal along with other items. One box of Kellogg’s Frosted Mini Wheats and one box of Kellogg’s Strawberry Frosted Mini Wheats.
8:31pm: I paid for my groceries and left the store. I have the receipt, which clearly marks where I was and the items I purchased.
8:45pm: I arrived back at home and brought in the groceries.
8:47pm: The kids put the groceries away.
9:00pm: I worked on one last article for the day and sent the others to my editor.
10:00pm: I logged into WoW for some game time with the family.
2:30am: We went to bed early.

January 23, 2009
11:24am: I woke up just before the alarm again this morning.
11:30am: The alarm went off. I turned it off.
11:35am: I asked Patrick what he wanted for breakfast. He said he’d have cereal. Easy enough. He’s a big boy, he can make cereal. I made coffee.

This is where the mystery deepens.

11:36am: After searching the pantry he asks, “Where are the strawberry mini wheats?”

I searched the pantry, the area around the kids’ computers and their bedrooms. “I don’t know, I just bought a new box yesterday,” I said reassuringly.

“I got the last bowl from one box last night and threw the box away,” he replied. I’m sure he was quite proud of himself for finding the trash can!

I was certain the empty box he threw away had to have been from the box I’d bought last week.

After checking the receipt to be 100% sure I’d bought the cereal and the pantry to make sure all of the other groceries had made it home, I considered calling Food City to ask if I’d left the cereal there.

Here’s how that conversation would have gone: “Hi, I bought some cereal there last night and it’s not here this morning, did I leave it there?” Store employee: “Not that I’m aware of, are any of your other groceries missing?” Me: “No, only the one single box of cereal that I’m certain was bagged with the other box that’s sitting here in front of me.”

Obviously I decided not to call the store, because I’m sure it was probably eaten by ghosts or scavengers. Lucky for me, the scavengers had only taken one serving of the plain frosted mini wheats.

Upon triple checking It would appear that the scavengers also took an entire gallon of milk, because the 3 gallons I brought home last night have been reduced to 2!

Should I set out mouse traps?