Stupid things you do in the kitchen

16 years ago

I feel like the biggest idiot! I'm a creature of habit I guess and I get used to one type of thing and then they go and change it and it really upsets me.

Case in point, McCormick Course Ground Pepper. It used to have a screw top, you take it off and there was a little lid with holes in it and you just sprinkle it on the foods.

Well they've gone and changed the lids. Now it's a flip top. You don't unscrew the lid anymore. And if you do, you dump out a half a container of black pepper onto your food. Not good. Plus it's expensive to keep going back to the store once a week to buy pepper.

You'd think I'd catch on that they've changed the lid but Noooooooooooooooooo. I did it again twice in a matter of hours yesterday.

Today I called McCormick. They have no plans on changing it back to the way it was. The rep suggested I tape the lid so I can't unscrew it.

D'OH!!!!!!

Do you do dumb things that you can't believe you've done again and again?

Please tell me I'm not the only one.

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Comments (113)

annie1992
16 years ago
Mustangs, I did nearly the same thing with a big aluminum pan full of green bean casserole that was going to a sports banquet at school. How could I possibly do that in less than 2 blocks? Sigh.

I'd have never made that casserole, but it was Ashley's special request, LOL, she still tells me I did that on purpose.

I never did quite get that sauce out of the carpet of the van....

Annie
arley_gw
16 years ago
Christmas day, making cornbread stuffing to serve 12...needed a BIG pan of cornbread. Preheated the oven and pan, mixed up the huge amount of batter, took the pan out of the oven, poured in the batter, and put the pan on the front of the slightly-pulled-out oven rack...then all h*** broke loose.

The oven rack wasn't secure at the rear. It had a little hook that was supposed to engage the guide. So the heavy batter-filled pan was on an oven rack that behaved like a seesaw, the pan flipped over and a quadruple recipe of cornbread batter landed sizzling on the inside of the hot oven door, with whatever didn't land there landed on the floor. What an unholy mess.

In the movie "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" Clark Griswold's father tells him how he got through the holidays: "I had a lot of help from Jack Daniel's." Just so.
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dlynn2
16 years ago
I left several half-pound bags of frozen crawfish in the car for over a week in the summer once. DH found them after they had exploded and spewed rotten crawfish juice all over everything in the back of the car. We had to rip the carpet out, have the upholstry cleaned, and drive with the windows down for a month or two. The car still had a slight smell for a few years, so we used lots of air freshener.

When I was in college they had just put in some new furniture in the TV room of our dorm near the Laundry. One night, my roommate and I decided to pop some popcorn and watch TV while doing laundry. We put the hot pot full of popcorn on the fabric couch between us and ate the popcorn right out of the pot. We thought it would be fine since pot holders are made out of fabric. It turns out that the fabric was some sort of synthetic, because when we got ready to leave the hot pot had melted the fabric and it was stuck to the couch. We had to just rip it off and it left a big, circular hole on the couch. Since our pot had the fabric stuck to it we were afraid of getting in trouble so we went to another dorm and threw it in the trash there.
diana55
16 years ago
I once made a "CheeseCake" and forgot the sugar. Needless to say, it was a little bland. Put a Pyrex dish on top of the stove, with an burner on. Glass exploded, and went everywhere. Diana55
jannie
16 years ago
My brother Bill was making the turkey gravy on Thanksgiving.He went to the sink to strain out the giblets, oops, poured all the gravy down the drain. I think his wife had canned gravy available.
noinwi
16 years ago
Bumblebeez, I've forgotten about the filter faucet also(just once so far)...it flows so slowly it's easy(for me)to get distracted and overflow what I'm filling...and WHY do I swing it over the counter when I know I shouldn't??!!!
Also things done on a regular basis:
Leaving the oven on after baking something and wondering why the apartment is so stifling hot!
Leaving the cupboard door open only to walk into it seconds later. I'm going to break my nose one day!!
vacuumfreak
15 years ago
This morning, I sprinkled salt all over my buttered toast. I meant to reach for the cinnamon sugar. Oops!
mariend
15 years ago
Setting here with tears in my eyes from laughing
Couple of things left gallon of milk on desk next to fridge in basement--on top of clothes--After all it is white like my whites It was on the chunky side.
Years ago my DD was making Choc Chip cookies, I came from work could smell them but could not find one. No chips, everything clean etc. Of course DD (2 of them) said OH No we did not make anything. Several days later went to put trash out and found ONE cookie on ground and DD just got so upset! She had put a cup of Salt instead of sugar and thought I would be really upset. I just laughed.
vacuumfreak
15 years ago
I've heard of people mixing up the sugar and salt in recipes before!

I just left a burner on for almost two hours. I made a grilled cheese for lunch on the stove top. I watched an episode of Laverne and Shriley, then shampooed the rug, then came back to the bedroom to go online for a while. When I was done online, I went back to the living room to break down the carpet shampooer and noticed how hot it was in there. I knew I didn't leave oven on because I hadn't used it. When I looked up at the range to see if I'd bumped the oven knob, there was a blue flame ring under the frying pan in the front burner. I never turned it off! Thank goodness I didn't leave for the supermarket (or the mandatory staff meeting on my day off today... yeesh!) with the burner still on! Hope my frying pan doesn't warp.
vacuumfreak
15 years ago
I've heard of people mixing up the sugar and salt in recipes before!

I just left a burner on for almost two hours. I made a grilled cheese for lunch on the stove top. I watched an episode of Laverne and Shriley, then shampooed the rug, then came back to the bedroom to go online for a while. When I was done online, I went back to the living room to break down the carpet shampooer and noticed how hot it was in there. I knew I didn't leave oven on because I hadn't used it. When I looked up at the range to see if I'd bumped the oven knob, there was a blue flame ring under the frying pan in the front burner. I never turned it off! Thank goodness I didn't leave for the supermarket (or the mandatory staff meeting on my day off today... yeesh!) with the burner still on! Hope my frying pan doesn't warp.
mst___
15 years ago
I've done many stupid things in the kithen but this one takes the cake...
Way back when I was young, my mother was always telling me to tie my hair back when I was cooking. Well I never paid much attention to her until one time I was mixing a cake up, I bent over and my hair got caught up in the beaters while the mixer was still going. Luckly I turned the mixer off before I ripped the hair out of my head. But there I was with the beaters wrapped around my hair and dripping chocolate cake batter onto the floor. In those days long hair was in the style and I wouldn't let my mom cut them out of my hair. So she patiently untangled them from my hair but it took a long time for her to do that.
I learned my lesson and always tied my hair back after that.
Teri
angier_2007
15 years ago
Cookie 8 I nearly stabbed myself. I was pulling plates down from an overhead cabinet while holding a knife turned towards me. I saw the knife coming right at my face. I don't know what I was thinking.
kayskats
15 years ago
filling up the drip coffee maker and leaving the empty pot on the counter -- not under the drip.
rachelellen
15 years ago
My new mantra: I will not go to my computer "just to check something quickly" when there is anything cooking.

A week or so ago, I set the sugar & water mix for my hummingbird feeder on the stove (in my favorite small, stainless steel pot)and went to check my inbox to see if a friend had replied to a note I had sent her.

A quarter cup of sugar can make a hellish amount of black, crusty foam once the cup of water has boiled away. After chipping the foam out, it took me 2 days of soaking with baking soda and scraping to clean the burnt crud off the bottom of the pot.

So. And what happened then, you ask? I got lazy one day about lunch, and since I was home alone I opened a can of chili, put it in my favorite small, stainless steel pot...and went to look up a recipe for dinner on the internet.

Chili is no slouch in the burnt crud department.
dgkritch
15 years ago
Today I started my morning with a nice pot of hot water. No coffee grounds.
That's twice this month, once at work and once at home.

I'm going to stop reading this thread....I think it's contagious!! HAHAHAHAHAHA

anon
bob_cville
15 years ago
I really enjoyed reading these: I now know I am not alone. :-)
I have done many of the things listed above, some notable stupid thigs are: On our old coil-type range, I turned on the wrong burner all the time. Several times I returned expecting the pasta water to be boiling, and found an empty coil glowing bright orange, or worse an empty pan heated to the point of being ruined. However I blame these errors on the poor layout of the knobs, and the fact that the OTR microwave blocked my view of the knobs.

One time I needed several egg whites for a recipe, so I took the eggs to the sink carefully cracked one, poured the yolk from one shell to the other and watched the white slither down the drain.

Another time I took a pyrex baking dish out of the oven took the broiled fish out of it, set it in the sink and thought "some of that is really burned on, it'll be easer to clean later if I fill it with water now and let it soak" As I started to run the water, the entire pan jumped six inches in the air, shattered into a thousand pieces, and landed back in the sink.

And then there was the time I was was packing for a trip, and realized that the first flight would have no food, and the trans-atlantic probably wouldn't have anything for a few hours, so I decided to make a quick snack. I filled a pan with water and dropped in two hotdogs and turned it on.
I then remembered that I wanted to call Visa to let them know I'd be travelling overseas, so they wouldn't freeze my card. After a few times of calling customer service, waiting, getting transfered and getting disconnected, and trying again, I finally got through and got things straightened away. I hung up and noticed that the hallway out of the bedroom looked a little smokey... Uh oh. I ran to the kitchen through ever thicker smoke, and found the pot was dry and over half of each hotdog had been charred away and vaporized into the most horrible smelling smoke ever.
netla
15 years ago
The stupidest thing I have done in the kitchen was get my left hand in the way when cutting the skin off a salami. Then the knife slipped. It would have struck bone if the point had gone anywhere else on my hand, but it sunk into the fleshy part between thumb and forefinger. I have a rather interesting scar as a result.

About once every 2 years I forget to use oven mitts when removing something from the oven.
vacuumfreak
15 years ago
Wow... this thread is indeed contagious. Every time I read it, I have something new to add. I don't remember my mind being this fuzzy before the beginning of this thread.

Bob... I enjoyed reading about your Pyrex jumping 6 inches and then shattering. I could just picture that... sounds like something that would happen to me.

Todays special "trick" was pushing the dishwasher rack in with a knife pointed upwards in the silverware basket. Anyone know if Cascade removes blood stains from a dishwasher interior?

Tonight, when I get home from work at midnight, I have to make a cake because I'm pressed for time the next couple of days. I'm sure that I'll add too many eggs (or forget them altogether) or use cornstarch instead of flour. Keep this thread alfoat at least until tomorrow.

Shaun, Shaun, Shaun... starting this contagious thread. I hope the moderators remove it because it is dangerous! Not only do I do more supid things (or realize them) now, I also choke on my food and drink while I'm reading due to the laughter.
shaun
Original Author
15 years ago
I did something quite stupid today. Got my Bucket O Dough out of the fridge, made two grapefrute size balls of dough and put them on a peel with corn meal. BUT I blew all the extra cornmeal off the peel and just left what was under the bread there.

I didn't even think that the bread was going to expand and grow a little while sitting there, and when I went to put them in the hot oven, they stuck to the peel.

Another loaf went into the garbage, it was hanging off the oven racks, glopping all over the place.

Note to Self - leave the corn meal all over that peel next time!
Cloud Swift
15 years ago
I had a close call making bread this weekend. My DH had gotten white whole wheat when I sent put whole wheat on the list. I decided to give the recipe on the back of the bag a try - It called for 3/4 cup of ground walnuts and I had some in the freezer that needed to be used up. But the amount was only about half that so I went back to the freezer to get the ground almonds which were in a similar container under the walnuts but I hadn't written almonds on the container - sometimes I forget.

Normally, frozen ground nuts are very well behaved - they are mostly oil without much water so they don't freeze together so it struck me a little odd that these had some ice crystals and were hard to scoop but I didn't think a lot about it. Fortunately in trying to get the stuff loosened up, my head came near the box. It really cleared my sinuses - grated frozen horse radish looks a lot like ground almonds except for the ice crystals. Also fortunately I hadn't put any into the bread yet - 3/8 a cup of horseradish would probably have been a bit strong and not have functioned in the recipe at all like 3/8 cup of ground nuts.

Note to Self - remember to mark things put into the freezer!
vacuumfreak
15 years ago
Gee thanks for reviving this thread. I feel a kitchen disaster coming up.......... This thread has a WEIRD power.
annie1992
15 years ago
Well, it wasn't a disaster but yesterday I ran a bottle of vinegar though my coffee pot to clean it. Of course, I forgot to remove yesterday coffee grounds, so I had some pretty interesting coffee/vinegar aromas going on in my kitchen last night.

Annie
vacuumfreak
15 years ago
I don't know why most of my accidents happen with the juicer, but alas they do. Last week, I had a friend over and we were both cooking in my microscopic kitchen. He was making dessert and vegetables, and I was juicing a watermelon.

I use my portable dishwasher as my work top because my counter space is so limited. So, I keep it on the carpet at the end of the kitchen counter and just roll it in the kitchen when washing (stay with me here, I'm setting the scene!). I sliced the watermelon up and began juicing. I kept filling the glass under the spout up and pouring it into the pitcher so I could continue. My friend Larry stopped me to ask how to turn my microwave on.... For the 9th time. I got a post it note from the desk, wrote "Press this START button to turn microwave on", then I drew an arrow on the post it and stuck it on the microwave right under the button so there wouldn't be any more confusion. OK, so I got my sarcastic humor kick for the day in, back to juicing. As I continued, I forgot to pay attention to the pulp basket. I kept cramming watermelon chunks down the machine and watched in horror as watermelon juice cascaded out of the pulp basket, onto the dishwasher, down the side of the dishwasher, and ONTO THE CARPET! I must have used 100 paper towels cleaning the mess off... I had to break the juicer down and clean it as well, because I didn't want "stuff" going into the motor. I quickly shampooed the carpet where the spill happened so it didn't get sticky. Then I had to reassemble the juicer and continue... I still had more watermelon to juice. As I was setting the juicer back up Larry interrupted once more. "Bobby, why doesn't this lever on the side turn your mixer on? It does on my mom's and she has the same one!", he called out. "Why Larry darlin, you gotta PLUG IT IN FIRST!", I responded. OK... Back to juicing. I crammed chunk down the chute of the juicer and watched the red juice fall right onto the dishwasher top and run down to the carpet. I'd forgotten to replace the cup under the spout!

I laugh now, but I remember adding more than a few splashes of vodka to the juice after that episode!
stacy3
15 years ago
oh Bobby - you jinxed yourself.

keep going - better you than me! I haven't been cooking enough to be stupid, I guess. Or I'm so used to it, I don't even remember anymore - lol!

Annie, I bet that smelled great, uh yeah.

uh oh, after reading back upwards, I am getting skeered!!!!!!!! It seems that just reading this sets a person up for disaster!!!!!
vacuumfreak
15 years ago
Indeed Stacy. Be afraid, be VERY afraid. TODAY.... I didn't do anything stupid. There used to be a "clumsy" thread (that I think I started)... Today I baked 5 chicken quarters for lunch... basted with BBQ sauce (and YES I ate the skin and enjoyed every bit of it!). They were wonderful. I ate one, and my gal pal, Sheila had 'tother. After we ate, I put the remaining three on a plate and covered it with foil. I had my music on as I was cleaning the kitchen and turned around from the stove to the fridge with the plate in my hand. I must have turned too fast (my favorite song came on and I must have been moving to the music), because the foil and all three chicken pieces went splat right on the floor. I stood there holding the empty plate, fridge door wide open, in horror (and a puddle of bbq sauce) for about 10 seconds before I could even move. I wanted to cry and laugh (and throw the plate).

That was going to be my dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow, and I was so looking forward to it... guess it's a grilled cheese or a trip to the supermarket now.

Lars (if you're still attending this dangerous thread), didn't you say something the stars having an affect over people and how clumsy they are?
rob333 (zone 7b)
15 years ago
I thought of this thread last night. So every year when I bake for Christmas, I forget something. Always. This year, I thought, I'm buying extra of everything. I made my list checked it twice, bought everything. Bought it early and put it out on the counter. I checked the recipes against what was sitting out once, twice, three times, and then decided I had everything I needed. I even bought an ice cream scoop to make uniform cookies. I was ready! I was measuring, mixing, cooking up a storm. It was going quite well, for a change. Then my favorite rubber spatula broke.
shaun
Original Author
15 years ago
I made cookies yesterday. After I got the whole butter thing figured out, I thought I'd get the rest of the ingredients all measured out etc. So I put the butter in the mixing bowl and then put the flour and sugar into another bowl to add a cup at a time......

D'OH! Supposed to cream the butter and sugar together! So I tried to scoop out the sugar from the flour.

They still turned out ok but I heard that Psycho Music play when I realized I was supposed to put the sugar with the butter.

This is all the butter's fault for not being cut into sticks when I bought it. Threw me off.
arleneb
15 years ago
Loves2cook4six: I was waiting for someone to tell about leaving the giblets in a bird! I did it the first time I did a Thanksgiving turkey. Fortunately, I was all alone in the kitchen carving it when I saw little shreds of plastic . . . what the heck? I figured it out, surreptitiously tossed the packet, cleaned up the shreddings and served the bird. Later I panicked, wondering if I poisoned everyone!

I vowed never to tell, but a week later my sister-in-law told me how stupid she was -- she not only did the same thing, but at the last minute, their neighborhood decided to do an all-house carry-in around the community pool . . . so she took her turkey there and carved it in front of all her neighbors! She said she thought she'd die on the spot. She was thrilled to hear I'd done the same thing.

Who knew turkeys hide things in two places?
User
15 years ago
I needed some roasted pecans for some baking I was going to do yesterday. Put a whole cookie sheet of pecan halves in the oven, set the timer so I wouldn't forget them. Checked after the timer went off and they needed a little more time. Unfortunately, I didn't set the time the second time. Had to throw out the whole batch.

Ann
shaun
Original Author
15 years ago
This thread could be a best seller if it were made into a book.
vacuumfreak
15 years ago
Ann, that's why I never toast or roast nuts anymore. I was making some pecan pies once and ruined about 14 dollars worth of pecans by forgetting about them. I'll just make a product that doesn't have as nice a flavor, can't trust myself!

Shaun, you're right!
sayhellonow
15 years ago
I've done this so many times I'm ashamed of myself, but I can post it here because I'm anonymous (grin). Here is the most stupid thing I've done in the kitchen: Walk away from the kitchen leaving a pot on the stove to simmer. You know the rest: I finally smell the burning and run to the kitchen and dump pot and all into the garbage.

Second stupid thing: throwing those pots out. I've finally come to realize that there are few burns I can't remove with some product and a lot of elbow grease. I've wasted some really good pots.
prairie_love
15 years ago
Wow, this is a great thread!

I've done the burnt nuts thing so often I don't even think it's stupid any more :)

Probably my dumbest was the time we had another couple over for dinner. I was making some green chile sauce of some sort and had it in the blender. For some reason I scraped it down with a metal spoon instead of with a rubber spatula. I was talking to my guests while I finished up this sauce, so was rather distracted. I turned the blender back on ... and discovered I had left the metal spoon in it. It shattered.

I routinely put cold things in the pantry and dry things in the frig, DH and I both lose our drinks (coffee, water, beer, wine, doesn't matter). The saddest was when I made a glass of ice water using the water on the frig door. A little while later I couldn't find my water. DH found it still sitting on the little shelf on the frig door waiting to be filled.
silversword
15 years ago
This thread is similar to "Cat threw up in the washing machine". If you haven't read it, you should!!! I'll go get the link. Hold on... and would you mind watching this pot on the stove for me?

I put some beans in a tupperware the other night, as I anticipated taking them for lunch the next day. Woke up early, could not find the beans. Searched the fridge. Cussed out hubby for eating my beans. Got home, searched again, still couldn't find them.

Mentally cussed out hubby again.

Three days later he is putting tupperware away in the cupboard and looks up at me with a twinkle in his eye...

"Missing anything?" he says... as he holds up the stinking, about to explode, rotten bean container...

I ate crow for lunch instead !
silversword
15 years ago
Here's the link:

Cat threw up in the washing machine...
carol_in_california
15 years ago
Years ago, my son decided he and I should make peanut butter in my new Cuisinart. We went to the store and got peanuts....the kind with the red skins on them....mistake #1....we came home put them into the processor bowl. And then decided we should try to get the skins off. I rubbed the peanuts with my hands and the skins separated just fine.
We only needed to get all those red little pieces out of the bowl. DH, my straight A student, suddenly decides if we use my hair dryer the skins will blow out....I thought it was a brilliant idea. (Mistake #2) But only until those darn little things blew all over the kitchen. We had a good laugh.
And we never made peanut butter again.
jessicavanderhoff
14 years ago
carol. . . that's a really good one. That was such a brilliant idea . . . almost. . .
spedigrees z4VT
14 years ago
Yes the flip-top lids on the new herbs and spices have thrown me for a loop too. The worst part is that I now have a spice rack filled with a collection of jars with both types of cap represented, old and new! I'm finally starting to develop the habit of automatically feeling the top to determine which type of lid I'm dealing with.

I don't take well to change in my old age.
annie1971
14 years ago
I have one of those Asian things with really sharp 3-sided blades for penetrating meat in order to tenderize. I went to jab the Oriental thing into the meat and realized (too late) that I had it up side down and jabbed myself into the palm of my hand with all of its stabbing/tenderizing power! How stupid was that?
jessicavanderhoff
14 years ago
Ouch, Annie!!

I burn food-- over and over and over-- I know better than to walk away from scrambled eggs. They take five seconds. And yet I do. Over and over. Good thing I buy five dozen at a time.
jimster
14 years ago
Annie, I have a similar story about getting confused by an oddly shaped knife blade while cooking in my son's kitchen. I misunderstood which edge was sharp and pressed down hard. That landed me in a clinic for some patching up. But yours, with a meat tenderizer, makes me shudder.

Jim
echooooo
14 years ago
Caught my oven on fire with the self clean option. Don't ya know the door locks when you do the self cleaning so all I could do was watch it burn since I couldn't open the door to put it out.
twoyur
14 years ago
does burning up the four potholders count???

received them as a gift. they each had this lovely magnet in the corner that let you attach them to the appliances so you didn't lose them

they stick just as well to the bottom of the cookie sheets you stick on the side to cool off between batches. you can hide one under each pan. I couldn't figure out what was burning until the magnets were pointed out after the pans cooled

the second stupid thing was when i realized i had to make cookies in a hurry. while making ginger snaps i grabbed the small McCormick's jar of ginger to add to the recipe. put it in the batch, cooked them, and delivered them to the bake sale. only to get back home and when i began to put away the ingredients find i had put dried mustard in the cookies

wouldn't have been so bad but i did the exact same thing two weeks later. I now buy the ground ginger in a glass bottle and the mustard in a can
jimster
14 years ago
"...only to get back home and when i began to put away the ingredients find i had put dried mustard in the cookies."

So, how's your reputation as a cookie baker? Hehehehe!

Jim
annie1971
14 years ago
And we are proclaimed competent cooks! How funny are some of our times in the kitchen! Well, you can't have an embarrassing moment in the kitchen if you're not going to put yourself there! Happy cooking to all of you that love to be in the kitchen!
Annie '71
lyndaluu2
14 years ago
Yes I have done stupid things Shigh....the wrong spice in something or opened it thinking there was a shaker top...
Tried to take a cookie sheet out of the oven without a mitt...
Rearranged the freezer in the gargage and found smelly meat a few days later in a basket next to the freezer..... shall I go on????

LOL

Linda
dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m
14 years ago
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMoPQfIpGGo&feature=related

Not my video
dcarch :-)
bbstx
14 years ago
When I was young and single, I invited a bunch of people for brunch. Cooked up a large skillet of bacon. Needed to reuse the skillet and knew better than to put the bacon drippings down the drain. After all, my momma did teach me something! Emptied the hot bacon fat in a styrofoam cup, which promptly melted. Hot grease all over the countertop! hmm...seems Momma forgot the lesson on plastics and heat...

Back when silver was very expensive, I had some sterling candelabra that I wanted to hide as I was leaving the house on a trip. Quickly stuck them in the oven...with the candles still in them. A week or so later, I turned on the oven to preheat. Melted wax all over the oven, along with lots of smoke. Also had the persistent smell of melted wax for weeks afterwards.
jimster
14 years ago
It could have been worse bbtx. I've heard tales of people hiding ammunition or fireworks in their ovens. Yep, they too forgot.

Jim
twoyur
14 years ago
Jim

the strange part about the mustard snaps we people liked them

I had requests for the recipe

i gave them the original one and two people accused me of holding out on them because the cookies were good but they were "missing" something

I tried one from the second batch

they weren't horrible but not ginger snaps

Stupid things you do in the kitchen

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