15 August 2010

Picking "Preserved" Pickled Peppers

So, we've had a hard time ordering our oldest daughter a hamburger with "ketchup and pickles only." Many of you know, she likes extra pickles, if available. So we've tried to learn the word for "pickle."

So far, this has not worked. Perhaps we haven't learned it . . . well. Anyway, we also have these dictionaries on our phones, so my wife tries to use hers today to show the folks at McD's the characters for the word "pickles." She comes to the table, and we all wait expectantly as our daughter opens up her hamburger. No ketchup, which is no problem because we have the pouches we can squirt on there. . . but no pickles either . . . instead, there's lots and LOTS of pepper.

PEPPER? Hmmmm. Apparently, the phone translated "pickle" as "pepper." Some help that was. Anyway, my wife is looking at the characters, as if there's some hope in trying to figure out what the problem was, and all of a sudden she says, "I think it has something to do with preserved cucumber." I'm like (and I'm still laughing as I type this), "Did you really get that from the characters . . . (thinking maybe she's way ahead of me)?" but she looks up (laughing now herself) and says, "No . . . this says 'Preserved' [next to the characters when it spits out the translation]."

"Oh," I say (still wondering how we ended up with "pepper") and still laughing, both of us laughing at each other now, "'Preserved Cucumber' is so appearing on my blog later." And now here it is. Sorry I can't replicate the humor from the moment, but trust us, it seemed quite absurd/hilarious at the time (and made me want my money back on the dictionary on our phones--not that we paid anything for the dictionary itself, but still--it's the principle).

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